Portsmouth transfer news: Why Danny Cowley must do all he can to bolster his Blues ranks THIS WEEK and follow Paul Cook's lead

With the warm-weather training camp just one week away, Marlon Pack’s arrival on a free transfer represents the striker-less Blues’ only piece of transfer business to date.

West Brom keeper Josh Griffiths is expected to follow suit.

However, our chief sports writer, Neil Allen, believes it’s important his loan move is announced – along with other signings – before the first-team squad jet off to Murcia for seven days.

Speaking in the latest edition of Pompey Talk, he claims such training camps double up as important team bonding trips, with former boss Paul Cook seeing the benefit during his time in charge at Fratton Park.

When asked if he anticipated any new arrivals before then or even prior to the Blues’ first pre-season game against the Hawks on Saturday, Allen said: ‘You’d certainly hope Griffiths is announced by then and you’d hope a few more, because, as ever, it’s important to get players through the door for the pre-season tour.

‘I saw it when Paul Cook took them (the Pompey players) all to Dublin – it was an incredible bonding experience.

‘It’s just important for the bonding and gelling of the squad, so he (Danny Cowley) will want as many as possible to go with him to Spain.

‘Players get time off to know each other, it’s an important period.

‘I know Danny was a little frustrated last summer at St George’s Park.

‘Not merely because it was full of triallists, but in terms of the team bonding and them being together – they were in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing for them to do. They went paintballing one day – that was it.

‘So you want somewhere where there can be team activities together, whether that be golf or something else. And it’s important to get the new players there.

‘Paul Cook, as soon as he and Leam Richardson came in (in 2015), they had four days in the Algarve, playing golf together, drinking together, training together, on the beach together – all these new lads together.

‘It’s important and you hope there’ll be more than one new face on such a tour when they (Pompey) jet off a week on Monday.’