How Portsmouth have been broadening their recruitment horizons during lockdown

Lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak meant Pompey’s League One promotion push was halted, with a restart date for the 2019-20 season unclear for weeks on end.

The players kept up their fitness programmes ahead of a return to training, with a play-off semi-final against Oxford now confirmed after clubs voted to curtail the campaign on Tuesday.

But for Jackett, he used the unexpected time away from football to plot the Blues’ future.

With head of recruitment, Phil Boardman, placed on furlough leave, the ex-Millwall manager was ensuring potential targets were still being unearthed – along with assistant boss Joe Gallen.

Jackett already has a wealth of knowledge of players in the Football League.

But lockdown provided the 58-year-old with an opportunity to look further afield and spot individuals who wouldn’t have necessarily been on his radar.

Jackett revealed he has been building up his wisdom of divisions he previously knew less about, which could pay dividends in the future.

He said: ‘It's been good, particularly during the early part, to watch your own games and assess your own division.

‘You can start targeting leagues that maybe you're not looking at and bringing up your knowledge of those leagues.

‘We always work on leagues where we believe that our recruitment is really going to be central and then look a bit further afield and build up your knowledge.

‘That is one part of the lockdown that gives you an opportunity to do that.’

Running the rule over players can often mean surveying copious hours of video footage.

There is a belief held by some that watching too many clips of players in action can, in fact, end up being a negative as you start to see the bad parts of their game.

While Jackett can understand that viewpoint, he reckons signing players ultimately comes down to a manager’s gut feeling.

He added: ‘You can overthink it sometimes, but you also get a gut feeling and have an experience of signing players. You have to trust those as well.

‘I don't think that you can watch enough, really. You do have to watch and watch and watch.

‘I understand people have said when you watch players too much then you begin to see their bad side of their game.

‘Even then, though, your experience and your gut feeling have to tell you whether the player is for you or not.’

Pompey are unlikely to enter the summer transfer market until after their League One play-off campaign is concluded – despite a relaxing of the rules by FIFA.

The Blues will be hoping they'll head into the 2020-21 season as a Championship side – should they successfully negotiate the play-offs.

Jackett's already aware of which positions he’ll need to bolster his squad regardless of whether his side are in the second or third tier next term.

With eight players soon to be out of contract, he feels he’ll need to strengthen where there will be gaps in Pompey's squad.

‘You can see where we are contractually with the players that we have,’ added Jackett.

‘That is the first thing and then, after that, even though there are players with a year left on their deals whether they are in your plans.

‘That's the other thing you consider.’