Portsmouth Chief Executive Andy Cullen has defended the club’s plans to target loan players in the upcoming transfer window.
Pompey are firmly in the midst of a relegation battle this season and are currently in 23rd place in the Championship with 12 points after 15 games. They did claim a brilliant result with a win over Preston North End in their last game before the international break.
“A Different Dynamic”
Going towards the January transfer window, Portsmouth Director Eric Eisner has said that John Mousinho’s side will be ‘relying on loans’ in the short-term.
The club have done well in recent windows for loan moves, securing deals for Norwich City‘s Abu Kamara and Manchester City’s Alex Robertson during their League One winning season. However, they failed to sign either of them over the summer, moving to Hull City and Cardiff City respectively.
This season has seen three loanees come to Fratton Park this season in Freddie Potts, Mark O’Mahony and Sam Silvera, with EFL regulations limiting the number of loan players allowed in a matchday squad to five.
Andy Cullen has come forward to justify the announcement Eisner made, telling the Portsmouth News:
“Loan players in the Championship are quite expensive. You’ve got a combination of not just wages but loan fees as well.
“So there’s a different dynamic that comes into play that people perhaps don’t see. We don’t begrudge that in any sense, however, in terms of where we are looking.
“We’re in a position where you recalibrate once you go out and get somebody.
“We’ve built a squad up which we felt was capable of building on the success of last season and achieving the first goal of consolidating in the Championship.”
Cullen has also noted that the club will not be against making a permanent move in January and will be exploring options in the UK, abroad as well as some potential free transfer options as players enter the final six months of their contracts.
Writer’s View
Portsmouth do have a good squad but the question still lingers of whether they have enough to keep themselves in the division. Loan moves over this next window do make sense as you do not want to be paying Championship wages to players you recently signed should they end up going down back into League One. If they manage to keep themselves up then more permanent investments will be more likely.
Football journalist with The Real EFL since 2023. A 2024 Multimedia Journalism graduate from the University of Salford, Lewis specialises in Salford City FC and EFL coverage.
