Portsmouth transfers: CEO explains why there will be a wait for new signings amid links for Cardiff, Cambridge and Luton players

The Blues chief executive has revealed no summer arrivals can be formally registered with the club until the transfer window officially opens – which, this year, is Friday June 10.

Any deals struck before then and made public before being legalised run the risk of being hijacked by other clubs. Alternatively, players and agents can still utilise any time up to the window opening to try to get a better offer from elsewhere.

Such scenarios are something the Blues are keen to avoid, with a lot of hard work put into this summer’s crucial recruitment drive following the appointment of Rich Hughes as sporting director earlier this season.

Pompey are expected to make a minimum of nine new signings over the coming months as Hughes and head coach John Mousinho look to stamp their authority on the first-team squad and make it serious promotion contenders.

Fans are desperate to see how that vision takes shapes and will be keen for news on that front as soon as possible as they gear up for a seventh consecutive season in League One.

Already, they’ve seen the Blues linked with moves for Gavin Whyte, Sam Smith and Tommy Leigh. Meanwhile, it’s well known that Pompey have a desire to make loans for Matt Macey and Di’Shon Bernard permanent ones moving forward.

However, Cullen advised supporters not to expect any announcements just yet as the club waits for the transfer window to officially open.

Explaining the process to BBC Radio Solent, the Blues CEO said: ‘In terms of formally registering a player and getting it right across the line, that’s the 10th of June and then the window runs all the way until the 1st of September.

‘That’s not to say that you don’t do anything until then. You’re talking to people. You’ll start to see clubs over the next few days announcing their retained and released lists. That’s for clubs not involved in play-off games – and they have to do that, as we will have to do that, by the third Saturday in May.

‘That will mean you can officially start to talk to players then. We obviously can get to a position where you can get deals done but the danger is, if you start to announce them, you can’t formally register them and therefore you get yourself into a situation where someone can come and hijack you at the last minute if they know that a deal has been done.

‘There’s a lot of posturing in this period as well. Clearly, we’ll be making approaches or offers to players once we’re legally able to do that.

‘But sometimes you then get a little bit of trade-off by players and their representatives just to see if there’s a better deal around the corner, and I’m sure that over the next few weeks you’ll see lots and lots of players linked with Portsmouth Football Club. Some will have an element of truth, some will have no truth whatsoever.

‘Agents need to try to up a better deal for their players – that’s the nature of the market place and it will be no different this year.’