Portsmouth transfer news: Further light shed on Pompey's deadline day interest in former Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough midfielder Lewis Wing now at Wycombe
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The midfielder emerged as a potential sixth January arrival, only for no deal to materialise and the now former Middlesbrough player to join fellow League One side Wycombe instead.
At the time, it was reported that any deal for the 26-year-old would prove complicated, with his then loan at Sheffield Wednesday one of several factors at play.
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Hide AdYet that didn’t prevent the Chairboys making their move late in the day and sealing Wing’s services on a permanent deal until the end of the season.
That left sections of the Fratton faithful underwhelmed, with Aiden O’Brien the only business carried out by the Blues on January 31 when a midfielder was also expected.
However, Cullen has admitted Pompey’s interest only developed after receiving an offer for one of their own players late in the window.
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Hide AdBut when speaking to the latest Tony Goodall Fans’ Conference, he elaborated without giving too much away on why Wing’s name was brought to the fore, why that interest wasn’t followed through and why reports of complications in any deal were inaccurate.
Asked ‘what went wrong?’, Cullen replied: ‘When Lee Brown went, that all came about very quickly.
‘I got a call from Neil Allen early on Thursday morning, prior to the window closing, asking if we had received an approach from any club for Lee, which we had not.
‘A call then came in from AFC Wimbledon, the same day at 2pm. Lee was keen to do it and we were able to get a deal done very quickly after that.
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Hide Ad‘Having already bought Denver Hume in, and having already got Connor Ogilvie who can also play in the left-wing-back position, that allowed us to sign someone else higher up the pitch.
‘Danny Cowley wanted to go for Aiden O’Brien and we got that one over the line.
‘Meanwhile, we got an approach for another of our players, but the figure offered was too low.
‘We had to be mindful, though, that if that bid had been increased, we may have been in a situation where we needed to get a replacement.
‘We had to be prepared for all options.
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Hide Ad‘In total, we looked at a number of players over the last few days of the window, all as contingency options.’
Rotherham’s Jamie Lindsay was also a reported target of the Blues in the run-up to the January deadline.
He, too, never arrived has since started two of the Millers’ past five games.
Meanwhile, Wing has made three appearances for Wycombe.