'He can do incredible things' - meet the ex-Norwich City and Ipswich Town man behind Mark Bonner's success at Cambridge United as Portsmouth's recruitment saga takes another twist

‘Ben Strang’s official position at Cambridge is sporting director and it has been his role for a while now.

‘The best way to describe it is he is the intermediary position between the boardroom and matters on the pitch. He does recruitment, focusing on sport science, and roughly in-charge of all the departments and oversees them.

‘He has a rough control on all of those things, but the main department is recruitment.

‘If you examine his whole tenure, it’s been relatively hit and miss as he’s been with the club for a little while now.

‘After a spell at Norwich, he returned to the club as what was labelled head of football. That was where he was overseeing and managing the people who were leading the departments

‘He’s built a strong relationship with the local non-league club St Neots who Cambridge loan to – so he covers a lot of bases.

‘In terms of recruitment, it’s kind of been hit and miss but that’s been down to the first three managers under his stewardship as well.

‘During Shaun Derry’s spell, the recruitment was quite strong although they missed out on the League Two play-offs.

‘What followed then were two managers, Joe Dunne and Colin Calderwood. The former wasn’t backed at all and made three signings who were all free and dreadful.

‘Due to the latter’s connections he would be on the phone and do a lot of recruitment himself.

‘When Mark Bonner was brought in under the new owners, that changed everything. He had very set ideas on how he wanted to run the club and recruit.

‘The key reason why he’s done well is because of that relationship with Ben Strang. Bonner knows Strang incredibly well, and they have a good understanding of how they want to recruit.

‘There was a lot of getting rid of the big personalities and not necessarily bringing in big-money signings.

‘They made a number of smart signings with Paul Mullin and Kyle Knoyle. It was deals like that and although didn’t take the league by storm in terms of hype, they were so smart.

‘Strang’s big test was last summer when they were widely tipped for relegation and they lost the pair I just mentioned.

‘But it was excellent. You can look past how he performed in the previous two seasons before Bonner returned, because what he’s done with the right backing, manager and a supportive board it’s what the club’s needed for years.

‘If Strang is given the right resources he can do incredible things.

‘He’s had to work smarter not harder at Cambridge, because of the size of club they are and I think that would help Pompey with their financial model.

‘I think those types of smart signings, looking at free agents and connections with loan players has worked really well.

‘That’s been seen as Cambridge have established links with clubs. They have links with Brighton, whose young players have done well on loan, which is the same with the relationship with Tottenham.

‘Cambridge took Jubril Okedina on loan which was turned into a permanent, which was a big thing for the club.

‘I don’t think the best way out of the league is by splashing loads of money, and that’s not the policy Cambridge have had under Strang.

‘They’ve not signed anyone over the age of 28 which is the route Pompey want to go down. He can really help establish those bonds with other clubs.’