Portsmouth chief: How 'good value' playing budget has driven Blues' superb start to League One season to rival favourites Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday

Yet the Blues’ chief executive remains tight-lipped on the extent of owners Tornante’s 2022-23 financial commitment to Danny Cowley.

During a prolific summer, Pompey signed 12 new players, of which seven were permanent deals.

That recruitment drive was partly supplemented by the sale of Marcus Harness to Ipswich, with fees paid for Zak Swanson and Colby Bishop.

Now Cowley’s new-look Blues are impressively soaring second in League One and boasting an unbeaten league record after nine matches.

Cullen told The News: ‘I won’t talk about budgets at all because I think people get hooked on that.

‘What I look at is how you spend that budget. It’s about spending it wisely, but also seeking to get the best value.

‘We could have spent money at the start of the window on players, but if we had panicked then we might not have ended up with the quality we did.

‘I will always look at the budgets available – and this budget certainly is no less than it has been before.

‘I would rather focus on how you use a budget well because last season we saw how some clubs with less resources than Pompey and other big teams in the division did extremely well.

‘When you look back at those clubs, they had really, really clear strategies and knew where they were going in terms of generating good value from budgets and resources available to them.

‘Everyone has worked hard to get really, really good value from the resources available to us.’

Pompey’s final signing of a busy window was Josh Koroma, secured on loan from Huddersfield on deadline day.

Following two substitute outings, the 23-year-old marked his full debut with a goal in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Plymouth.

Cullen admits the Blues had to battle with Championship suitors for the attacker’s signature as they attempted to seal last-gasp transfer business.

Yet Koroma’s determination to reunite with former Huddersfield head coach Danny Cowley was pivotal.

Cullen added: ‘Josh was an opportunity which came our way.

‘We had interest, while there was obviously a connection having worked with Danny and Nicky before, nevertheless the player had options in the Championship.

‘Yet it was very much his decision to choose Pompey as the club he wanted to come to, he felt very strongly about that.

‘Sometimes a loan move can be dictated by that player’s parent club, but we were very grateful for Josh making the decision to choose Pompey for the season – and also for Huddersfield for making that happen.

‘We got terms agreed late afternoon, but the paperwork took a bit longer, so it was hanging on your nerves a little to get it done by the deadline.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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