'Whatever happens...' - Portsmouth sporting director offers insight into summer transfer strategy as doubts remain
Rich Hughes is currently pursuing a transfer strategy that has Pompey competing in the Championship next season.
But with a ‘hope for the best, plan for the worst’ approach to preparations for another important summer of trading, the Blues’ sporting director isn’t dismissing the possibility of actioning an entirely different transfer window plan if the Fratton Park outfit find themselves back in League One come the end of the season.
Sensible planning is clearly the order of the day, with Pompey’s Championship status very much up in the air after back-to-back defeats to Plymouth and Preston North End heading into the international break.
The Blues - who sit 17th in the standings - still have their league fate entirely in their own hands with eight games of the campaign remaining.
But with a previously comfortable 10-point advantage over the relegation zone obliterated by those two costly losses, a now four-point cushion ensures Pompey aren’t in a position to take their foot off the gas any time soon.
There’s no doubt that uncertainty plays havoc for Hughes and his dedicated recruitment team, who are constantly scouring the markets for fresh talent to ultimately benefit the club and head coach John Mousinho.
It undeniably makes their jobs tougher, especially when there’s a heavy weight of expectation on Hughes and Co’s shoulders from the entire Fratton family.
Yet, speaking in a recent interview with Richard Edwards and Rob Wilson for their Substack account, the Pompey sporting director appears to have everything at his end of the bargain under control. And he’s confident all the groundwork that continues to be put in place will pay off whenever the Blues’ destiny is finally decided, whether’s that’s in the Championship - which remains the expectancy - or the third tier of English football.
In reference to his approach to the summer transfer window, Hughes said: ‘You could end up saying, look, we can't effectively press forward, but our hope and expectation is to be a Championship football club next year.
‘We've got two strands of recruitment - one if the worse-case scenario happens and the best-case scenario of maintaining Championship status and involving the group again. And that's where we're at.
‘Again, it sounds really cliched, but we don't stop working at any point. The guys are out at games this week at the internationals.
‘They're all picking up various bits. We're doing all the video work. We're trying to cover everything off between us so we've got the good knowledge on whichever league we're in.
‘Hopefully it's the Championship and we continue to build that group. But I think it's something that 's been instilled in me as an individual through my parents as hope for the best but, plan for the worst.
‘Whatever happens, we'll be in a good position to react whenever we can execute whichever plan it turns out to be.
‘Obviously we're all very much hoping it's going to be the Championship recruitment we continue to push on with.’
Sixth Pompey transfer window awaits Hughes
Since moving to Pompey from Forest Green Rovers in October 2022, Hughes has overseen five transfer windows at Fratton Park.
His track record during that time has been exemplary, with the Blues currently in a far better place than the one that greeted him 25 months ago.
His recruitment successes hugely outweigh the negatives. But how does the former Burnley scout cope with the goldfish bowl that Pompey can be and rollercoaster ride the comes with the job.
He added: ‘I was out watching a couple of players on Saturday and I see it flash up on my phone that we've conceded late against Preston. You feel physically sick. It's a horrible, horrible feeling. It's the best feeling in the world when you win and it's the worst feeling in the world when you lose.
‘I'm definitely a lot greyer than I was when I first started, but this is why we do what we do - the thrill of the success and the aspirations to be good and to be great is why we do what we do. It's highly passionate, it's highly emotive, but it's also wonderful, spectacular, challenging, stressful, everything. It's a complete multitude of emotions.’