Smaller squads and player surpluses - the implications of a devastated transfer market for Portsmouth and fellow clubs

Although traditionally a time of year when player recruitment is ramped up, the transfer market has stalled.

Uncertainty over whether the Premier League and Football League campaigns will resume has, in turn, impacted upon clubs’ player business.

In addition, with clubs struggling to survive through the loss of match-day revenue, there remains a realistic possibility of player budgets and squad sizes being slashed.

Howard runs Momentum Sports Management, with Ben Close and Christian Burgess among their Pompey clients.

And the former Blues skipper has lifted the lid on how the transfer market has been impacted in the current climate.

Howard said: ‘Make no mistake, the current situation will affect recruitment across the summer.

‘With everything on hold, players are in limbo, and nobody knows when they will be able to finalise signings.

‘Take the financial problems. In the last year there have been Macclesfield, Bury and Bolton experiencing money problems, but that is going to happen for another 20 clubs if they aren’t helped by the government.

‘In turn, that will impact on how many players clubs want, with a smaller budget meaning a smaller squad, with less places up for grabs and more players out of work.

‘That will then filter down to non-league and through the non-league it will filter down again.

‘Some clubs run on a month-to-month cash flow. Some are lucky they have owners able to pay bills, others aren’t.

‘As a company, we are owed fees from January and February which we have invoiced for, in some case it’s a lot of money – but clubs don’t have the cash flow to pay us.

‘We are at the bottom – and I accept that – you have to pay employees at the club first, but it shows the financial issues which clubs are suffering.

‘Until they say you can go back to normality as much as possible, then everything is up in the air.’

Another crucial issue is those players whose contracts expire on June 30.

Should the league campaign be extended into July and August, a resolution must be found to temporarily extend their deals.

And that, in turn, could impact upon arrangements already reached with out-of-contract players to join other clubs.

Howard added: ‘There will be some players on big money not wanted at clubs, that club cannot wait for their contract to finish and are budgeting getting them out on June 30.

‘But they may now have to extend that deal to cover the season finishing in July and August, which means more expense.

‘Then there could be players in the team who planned to leave on June 30 to join someone else and must now stay longer – that sums up the difficulty for the market.

‘In terms of players coming up to being out of contract, normally around March and April time people know more about what league the clubs will be in, so negotiations start increasing, you begin meeting clubs and discussing.

‘You cannot officially join until July 1, but there will be verbal agreements, even a signed contract put in the top drawer – but clubs won’t be doing that now.’