Portsmouth chief lays transfer plan on line after tough calls over champions

Andy Cullen underlined Pompey will continue to focus their transfer hunt on young, emerging talent.

The Blues chief executive is adamant rising stars will be prioritised, as their summer recruitment push continues.

And Cullen insisted there can be no squad ‘passengers’ in the Championship, after making tough calls over the futures of John Mousinho’s League One title winners.

Pompey are ploughing on with their player hunt ahead of the transfer window opening for summer business on June 14.

And when it comes to that work, Cullen stated the preference will be to bring in talent on the way up who can impact the first-team picture immediately.

He said: ‘Our focus continues to be on assets. Our strategy is about bringing young first-team ready talent into the building.

‘It served us well last year and that will be prioritised for most of our recruitment strategy next season as well.

‘We have to have a squad to be at a level - we can’t have any passengers and any people making up the numbers.

‘There’s also changes are coming to the Championship in terms of the new Profit and Sustainability Rules that are coming into play. We’re well placed in terms of how we’ve structured our squad.

Pompey will be supplementing a squad which has been cut down in size, with 10 players released last month.

Additionally, four loan players have returned to their parent clubs, with what lies ahead for Joe Morrell and Zak Swanson still unclear.

That leaves 18 contracted players at present, with the set-up streamlined ahead of business being conducted.

Cullen added: ‘That’s why we had to make at the end of last season, when looking at the squad, some very, very tough decisions in terms of the retained released side of things.

‘Sometimes the desire to consistently improve overcomes sentiment, which is a very easy emotion to settle on after promotion.

‘Everybody is on board with that across the football club - we have some great things happening to build on that success last season.’