Michael Eisner reveals playing budget plan and outlines strategy which has let Portsmouth down in recent seasons

And the Blues owner has detailed why he believes a shift away from a reliance on loan players is so key to his club’s chances of success this term.

Eisner revealed his club spent more than any other League One side on temporary additions last term under Danny Cowley and John Mousinho.

There has been a clear move from that policy under new sporting director Rich Hughes this summer, with just two of the 13 players recruited loans.

Eisner admitted he doesn’t quite comprehend the fascination with playing budgets, but Pompey will continue to be flexible on that front after increasing the kitty this summer.

He said: ‘Everyone wants to know about the budget.

‘The budget is immaterial to the strategy, because if you go for loan players that’s expensive.

‘We were the most expensive in our league on loan players (last season).

‘Going for our own players who have a real future can be expensive, too, this is not a business for people who are nervous about the economics.

‘Obviously we have a budget and we will adjust the budget for an opportunity, but we’re not crazy.

‘We were never number one on film budgets, it’s what and who is the content which is most important.

‘Going from two scouts to 11 scouts is the right direction. Having more technology to analyse potential players is the right thing to do.

‘Nothing, however, supplements looking at the player and saying “hey, he doesn’t do well with the cameras on him, or he does well all of the time”.

‘We’re open minded to everything, there’s no argument or presentation which would be ignored.

‘We may not agree with all of it, but what happens on the field they (the football operation) know more about it than we do. John, Rich, Andrew and the rest know more than we do.’

Pompey’s latest published accounts for the 2021-22 season detail a £738,000 increase in spend on loan players.

That figure is set to rocket when the next set of accounts for the 2022-23 season are published next year, with the likes of Josh Koroma, Josh Griffiths, Owen Dale, Joe Pigott, Matt Macey and Di’Shon Bernard covered.

Eisner is clear he feels the approach from Pompey was flawed.

He added: ‘Andrew, John and Rich have talked about it a lot.

‘It’s owning your own players (where the club’s strategy has changed).

‘I didn’t know anything about it, I knew about sports but didn’t know that much about being in football.

‘Doing great up to Christmas and then having a couple of people who made you great go back to their other teams was so frustrating.

‘If you did badly you just lost money, but if they did well they were gone in January.

‘Almost every season we’d have a good start and then fall apart. Everyone blamed all the coaches and that was not fair, it was a strategy which was just incorrect in my opinion.

‘So we learned. Andrew has been doing this a long time and knew. Rich was firm on this - you can’t abide by only loan players.

‘Yes, you can have a couple of loan players - maybe two or three That’s great, but to have loan players to save you is a bad strategy, in my opinion.’