Portsmouth chief reveals summit talk details and plans to strengthen on pitch
John Mousinho has been forthright in his view the club need to spend ‘significant figures’ to progress in the Championship. Chief executive Andy Cullen has now updated on where the club’s strategy will now focus.
Andy Cullen promised Pompey’s resources will now being channelled towards improving the first team’s Championship standing.
The Blues chief executive insisted the next 12 months will see an intensified focus on pushing the club up the second tier, by affording the senior set-up the conditions to accelerate their progress.
Cullen: Focus is how we push forward progression on pitch
That follows more discussions off the back of talks during director Eric Eisner’s visit to the city at the end of last month.
Pompey boss John Mousinho has been vocal over the need to push the first-team set-up forward, with Cullen confirming that is what the strategy will zero in on moving forward.
He said: ‘We’ve been having discussions on a number of different areas, but first and foremost we discussed the strategy for the football club’s next steps.
‘That wasn’t something which was new, it’s a process we’ve been discussing and had several meetings since about in terms of what that future roadmap looks like, how we can fine-tune and implement it.
‘The resources we have are precious and we have to put everything into Squad Cost Ratio rules.
‘We have to prove to the regulator we’re not putting the football club at risk and we have to balance everything against that.
‘But the focus going forward - and the focus over the next 12 months is going to be: How can we improve everything in the first team to progress the football club?
‘How can we move the club up the league table in the Championship?
‘It’s not like Michael and Eric come for two days and we don’t hear from them or another three months. I spoke to them three times last week, for example, over different areas.
‘That shows the level of commitment, but the focus is fundamentally how do we push forward the progression on the pitch and how do we push forward in the Championship?'
Pompey continue to invest in capital expenditure projects, with this summer seeing a £1.5m Fratton Park pitch renovation taking place.
Cullen acknowledged stadium improvements and academy progress are other areas of focus, but feels the first team’s standing now has to take precedence.
He added: ‘There’s a list of competing priorities.
‘We’re putting a new pitch down at Fratton Park this summer, we’d like to put new pitches down at the training ground.
‘We’d like to go to the next stage in categorisation for the academy, which would mean expanding the facilities for pitches at the training ground. That would be a requirement of Category 2, as would be a dome.
‘We’ve got a stadium we need to continually improve as well.
‘’We’re going to be in a position where a fair proportion of that has supported the working capital and going concern of the football club - but a huge amount has gone into infrastructure projects.
‘Let’s not forget five years ago the stadium was heading for a 10,000 capacity. It was 16,000 in 2021 after the pandemic when I started my job, with the indication it would be dropping to 14,000 and going beyond that.
‘We were able to work with everyone in terms of the stadium licence to maintain it at 16,000, because the work was about to start.
‘We’re now at full capacity, there’s still pressure from people asking why can’t we put the capacity up by another 5,000-6,000?
‘That’s something that’s our ambition to do so, but, at the moment, everything has to be focussed around the first team.’