Portsmouth chief’s recruitment message with summer transfer business under microscope
Pompey’s summer transfer business has been a talking point amid recent struggles for John Mousinho’s side. Chief executive Andy Cullen gives his response.
Andy Cullen insisted it’s crucial Pompey don’t deviate from their recruitment strategy as they wait for summer signings to make their mark.
And the Blues chief executive acknowledged there’s going to be ‘hits and misses’ when it comes to transfer business, with last summer’s trading an early-season focus amid a challenging Championship period.
Pompey chief: ‘You have to be strong to your strategy’
It was another busy window with 11 players brought in ahead of the team’s second campaign at the level, following last-term’s 16th-placed finish.
Adrian Segecic has made an encouraging start to life in English football, with Josef Bursik showing himself to be a shrewd addition to the goalkeeping department.
But, elsewhere, others are still to make a strong impact with Franco Umeh injured since signing from Crystal Palace for £500,000, £1m capture Luke Le Roux not making the past three squads and the jury still out on other additions.
Cullen believes Pompey need to remain firm in their convictions over their recruitment policy when it comes to developing assets, with questions being posed over the immediate impact of new faces.
He said: ‘You have to be strong to your strategy.
‘If you start having knee-jerk reactions in terms of recruitment, you’ll very quickly find yourself in trouble.
‘It’d be very easy to go back to recruiting players towards the ends of their career. Then we go back to where we were six or seven years ago, in a very difficult situation.
‘So we’re very, very clear in terms of our focus on the long term, while being mindful it’s not just about recruiting young players.
‘We need to bring in that little bit of experience we tried to bring in, in terms of the likes of John Swift and Conor Chaplin, with a Championship pedigree.
‘Conor was an opportunity which came to us towards the end of the window, which again is a player with Championship experience. We still feel, over the course of a long season, those players are going to be absolutely crucial to us.
‘They are all players we brought in who could immediately challenge for the first team, and give us more depth than what we had before. What we need to do is to continue to address the here and now challenges we have.’
Cullen: ‘There will be hits and misses’
Despite some criticism over Pompey’s most recent business, Cullen feels the areas which needed tackling in John Mousinho’s squad were identified with steps taken to remedy any issues this summer.
The Blues CEO believes some consideration has to be given to the reality not every signing made will be a success, with a 50-50 hit rate the recruitment benchmark.
Cullen added: ‘I think we looked to strengthen the depth of the squad this summer, and I think we did that. We had players in key positions who performed really, really well last season so, where you can, we looked to back that up.
‘Last season we were affected by injuries in the centre-back position, which was quite challenging for us to deal with last year. So we wanted to have plenty of cover in that position and that influenced the likes of Josh Knight coming into the team this summer.
‘We’ve reinforced, in case we went through that situation again.
‘Then there was going out for the longer-term investments, in the likes of Adrian Segecic who is very quickly showing the talent and ability he has.
‘In terms of the goalkeeping department, we wanted real competitiveness for the number one position. That decision served us well with the unexpected injury to Nico, and then having two keepers challenge for that position.
‘Look, it’s not always an exact science in terms of what you do and there will be hits and misses along the way, we’ve all seen that and everyone will have that.’