Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley reveals extent of impact director of football absence has had on recruitment

But the Blues boss explained how every member of staff is going ‘above and beyond’ to secure transfer targets in pre-season.

Pompey last night landed their first summer signing in Marlon Pack, after a summer waiting for transfer activity to commence.

Cowley is adamant the previous lack of action wasn’t for the lack of trying, with Pompey without a recruitment expert for most of the year.

Cowley told The News: ‘Obviously the club is set up now to have a sporting director/director of football that not only drives the recruitment, but also supports all of the provisions that relate to the first team.

‘But we’re all mucking in. This is what we do here, everyone is going above and beyond.

‘Myself, Nicky, Simon Bassey, Lorenzo (Dolcetti), Joe (Prodomo), Phil Boardman as head of recruitment, Andy Cullen and Tony Brown.

‘Everybody is working exceptionally hard to make up for the person we don’t quite have in the building at the moment.

‘This is just the reality and we’ll continue to work hard and try to find the solutions with the tools we’ve been given.’

Pompey have been without a director of football since Roberto Gagliardi left his post earlier this year.

Since then, the club embarked on an extensive search for a successor before The News revealed they were close to appointing Forest Green Rovers’ supremo Richard Hughes in May.

However, the ex-Burnley scout completed a U-turn to remain at the League One new boys, while Ben Strang was also linked with the position.

Cowley has challenged the club to learn from their setbacks over the appointment.

He added: ‘It was well publicised that Roberto left at the beginning of this year, and we’ve been without a director of football ever since.

‘It’s important for the club that we fulfil that role, but it’s important we get the right person.

‘We’ve been through a process and we will take some time to evaluate and look at how we set up that process, try to take some learning from it and look to appoint someone in that position in the future.

‘In an ideal world we would have a full complement of staff.’