Revealed: The Portsmouth sales pitch to prospective signings to excite faithful this summer

Now, Luton Town and Coventry will contest the richest game in football - with one of them bound for the Premier League.

It’s a meteoric ascent for the victor, as they get their football models spot on when it comes to making progress on the pitch.

In the 2017-18 season both teams were foundering in the EFL’s basement division, when a 1-1 draw was played out between the sides in March of 2018 at Kenilworth Road.

Now one of them stands to pocket £135m - the value the bean counters place on winning the play-off final - when they collide at Wembley on May 27. Meanwhile, Pompey face a fight to get out of League One at the SEVENTH time of asking, in John Mousinho’s first full season at the helm.

But listening to the Blues boss’ sales pitch when speaking to prospective signings this summer, may just offer some cause for optimism to the Fratton faithful.

Mousinho has outlined how one of the key points in discussions with players, is the clear ambition to deliver promotion next term.

But then, crucially, to go again in the Championship.

It may be a goal which is easier said than done, but the rhetoric has certainly been ramped up in PO4 in recent times when it comes to getting it right on the pitch.

A quiet confidence has grown about retaining key figures and, significantly, the suggestion is finances will be improved when it comes to giving the head coach the tools to get it right.

‘A big thing when speaking to players is the potential,’ Mousinho said, when speaking about talks with potential signings.

‘We’re not selling a move to players as a stepping stone, we’re saying to players: “look if you do well here, it’s a club which if and when we go to the next level, will go again".

‘It’s not a thing where you’re coming to Portsmouth to hopefully get a better Championship club. The sell here is the ambition for this football club is to go - and go again.

‘We want to get everything right and do it the proper way. That’s a really good point for players and everyone coming to the football club.’