Portsmouth chief unveils recruitment policy change - with focus on signing next rising stars like Celtic's Matt O'Riley and MK Dons' Scott Twine

That’s the pledge from Andy Cullen, who is championing a substantial switch in recruitment policy at Fratton Park from next summer.

As executive director at MK Dons, Cullen was involved in the signing of O’Riley from Fulham’s Academy, with the 21-year-old going on to join Celtic last month for £1.5m.

Before becoming the Blues’ chief executive in June, also on his watch was their summer move for Swindon’s Scott Twine, with a fee fixed by a tribunal.

The 22-year-old, who had also attracted fleeting interest from Pompey, presently has 13 goals in 35 appearances from an outstanding League One campaign.

For a club which previously unearthed Matt Clarke and Jamal Lowe, Cullen is adamant it remains an untapped recent market for the Blues.

And owners Tornante are prepared to pay for players of such rich promise.

Cullen told The News: ‘Tony Brown provided me with some information from the last 4-5 years that shows 48-50 per cent of players signed by Pompey have come from the Championship.

‘Perhaps there hasn’t been a real focus on lower down the leagues, so signing up-and-coming young players will be a really, really important part of the football club going forward.

‘Give them the chance to play first-team football rather than being lost in the under-23s world. Or perhaps they are up and coming from League Two or the National League and ready for the next step up.

‘So you might be able to bring in a younger player coming out of an Academy, take Matt O’Riley for example at Fulham’s Academy, who walks into your first-team and is going to be a great player and, in 12 months, is playing for Celtic.

‘Some will be able to come into the first-team immediately, some might take a bit of a year’s development. We have to create that environment for them to develop.

‘Someone like Scott Twine you can invest in initially to get them into the building. Then you go again with them and reinvest in the next best young player coming through.

‘We looked at Twine from October/November 2020 and knew we weren’t getting him in January, but were aware he was out of contract at the end of the season. The fear was we didn’t know which way a tribunal would go.

‘We have to get the balance right, otherwise you end up with a very, very short-term approach to player recruitment, only dealing for today and not the long term.

‘It’s an area we need to be a little more measured going forward and if you need to make some investment to get there – and it's part of your plan and strategy – there’s no problem.’

Pompey had previous success with Clarke, who arrived from Ipswich following a successful loan spell, while Lowe was plucked from Hampton & Richmond.

The likelihood is Marcus Harness and Ronan Curtis will also fit that criteria when the time comes for them to move on.

Yet that’s just four players since the summer of 2015.

Cullen added: ‘As part of the transition for Danny, you have to fix a few things first to get the players in.

‘Then, as you start to get your core together, you can go onto the next stage and that comes into the next window. That's why you can’t achieve everything in one or two windows.

‘Now we have that spine, we can take it onto the next stage.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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