New Portsmouth chief reveals exciting blueprint to unearth next wave of hidden gems - repeating Cardiff City, Bristol City and Barnsley success stories

But, to Pompey’s new sporting director Richard Hughes, there was an opportunity to rebuild the cast-offs piece by piece.

And in the case of of a string of Forest Green Rovers success stories, not only did the 34-year-old get those toys working again - they became shiny, gleaming much-improved versions of their former selves.

Hughes can claim to have played a central in the acquisition and development of the likes of Ebou Adams, Kane Wilson, Matt Stevens, Liam Kitching and Nicky Cadden, as first head of recruitment and then director of football at New Lawn.

Now the challenge is to do likewise at Fratton Park, as the former Wigan, Burnley and Stoke man gets stuck into his new role.

‘At Forest Green, we knew where we were in the food chain,’ Hughes told The News of his past role.

‘So what we described as broken toys, was when we’d look to bring in players with a certain skill set in certain areas, who potentially could have been almost discarded out of the system.

‘There was someone like an Ebou Adams, who’d had a good grounding in non-league football, got a good move to a Cat One academy in Norwich, had a couple of failed loans and then moved back out of the conventional football pyramid and was playing at Ebbsfleet.

‘Someone like Ebs, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying, I’d describe as a broken toy.

‘He had loads of tools, and we felt as a football club it was our job to put them back together and help them move on to bigger and better things.

‘We jokingly spoke about it, and it became a thing.

‘We had Kane Wilson who was on the bench in the Premier League at 16, but then lost his way with injuries.

‘We were just trying to look for players with untapped potential, that perhaps other clubs wouldn’t want to invest the time and resource into to help them get back on their way.

‘I genuinely take immense pride when I see these players who come in and then move on to bigger and better things from where we were.

‘It’s a source of great pride.

‘Even players who’d we’d just got going again like Matty Stevens.

‘He had great potential, but his first 18 months at the football club didn’t go particularly well.

‘He probably would have won the golden boot last year if he’d not had a nasty ACL injury.

‘This is the side people don’t see. You create great connections, because there’s some wonderful people in this game.

‘To see them do well is brilliant.

‘Even someone like Jamille Matt who’s a senior figure at the club, recovered from a horriific injury to play week in, week out. You take pride in working with those players.

‘We had a good recruitment record with the players we brought in. There’s quite a few playing in the Championship or League One now, which is a great achievement for the football club and me personally.’

Hughes has already had a few weeks to settle into his overarching role, which will tackle a wide variety of areas in Pompey’s football operation.

He’s made no secret of his desire to be ‘hands on’ when it comes to recruitment, however, an area he already has plenty of experience in.

Hughes feels clear, concise joined-up thinking on the direction Pompey are looking to travel is needed.

He added: ‘I think what we have to do is have that alignment where we bring players in.

‘What are we scouting and what we are looking to achieve?

‘We have to make sure we have a recruitment process which befits what we’re trying to achieve of it.

‘That’s something we’re working towards.

‘There’s been a lot of really good work going on in recruitment, but speaking to (head of recruitment) Phil Boardman and Danny (Cowley), we want to make sure we’re laser focussed and we start to have a great working knowledge of the areas we can affect.

‘We felt that was always a skill at Forest Green, that we were affecting the markets where we knew we could bring players in. That’s what we will try to replicate here to make sure we’re aware of the best talents we can bring in.’