Chief executive lays down Portsmouth transfer blueprint to take on Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic & Co moving forward

And the Blues chief executive hailed the huge summer overhaul at PO4 a success after the close of summer business this week.

Danny Cowley brought in 14 players with a mammoth 18 men departing, as the head coach took a cleaver to his squad after being named the club’s boss on a permanent basis.

That business has been the focus in recent weeks, but after the cut-off at 11pm on Tuesday the attention has quickly shifted to preparatory work looking forward.

And Cullen explained that doesn’t just mean January business, but also looking ahead to what can be achieved ahead of the 2022-23 campaign.

He said: ‘We’re starting to prepare for January and next summer now.

‘We’re starting to look at what the squad might look like in terms of players who may or may not be with us next summer.

‘We’re looking at what we’ll do in January, also with a view to what we do in the summer as well and the remainder of this season.

‘It’s a constant build and a constant process over three windows.

‘We’ll continue to regularly look at it.

‘We have monthly recruitment meetings, formal ones.

‘But in between the recruitment team will work pretty much on a daily basis to identify players who fit the football club, where we want to be and what we want to achieve.

‘We need to be ready to go.’

Cullen came into the chief executive’s role at Pompey in June, with recruitment quickly a priority area to address.

Mahlon Romeo became the final of the players to arrive right at the cut-off point on Tuesday night.

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There was some disappointment from fans there wasn’t more final-day business, with a striker the addition many were looking for.

That didn’t materialise, but amid some frustration at setbacks Cullen feels there can be overall satisfaction at the work which took place.

He added: ‘You have to go back to the starting point and what we set out to do.

‘You have to look at our objectives. They were to give us balance, make us stronger and to work within the framework we had to identify players who would fit our style and philosophy.

‘The players needed to fit the pattern of play Danny and Nicky wanted to establish.

‘We’ve recruited 14 players who all align to that.

‘The outcome is 14 signings in, seven of which have got considerable Championship experience.

‘Four of the five loans are from Premier League clubs and really exciting, young talent.

‘Then you have two development signings in Jayden Reid and Liam Vincent, with the other player Connor Ogilvie, who is an established League One player.

‘So that was really good.

‘We believe and Danny believe we have that balance, players who are stronger and we’ve kept some exciting talent as well who can achieve more.

‘Also we’ve picked up some really good loans as well.

‘If those loans really work for us from Premier League clubs, as Danny has already demonstrated with Arsenal, there could be more up-and-coming players in the future who can add to you.

‘So set against the objectives it’s been a good window.

‘There’s always things you look back on and think there could be improvements you could take forward.

‘We’ll be doing that to make sure we go into the next window and next summer even stronger.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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