'We’re aware that puts a target on our back': Sporting director absolutely clear on Portsmouth's ambition for next season

The sporting director insists the Blues are preparing for an onslaught on League One’s top six after three successive failures.

Last term they rallied under John Mousinho in the second half of the campaign to climb to eighth, yet have still not reached the play-offs since 2019-20.

The prospect of a seventh straight year in League One has, understandably, left the Fratton faithful hugely frustrated.

Now Hughes is overseeing a large-scale summer recruitment drive, striving to bring 9-10 new faces to Fratton Park.

And he is adamant the 2023-24 goal is clear – to return to the Championship.

He told The News: ‘We want to be a top-six side. There are margins within that between automatics and play-offs, but that’s our aim as a group of individuals, from the staffing perspective and the hierarchy at the club.

‘We’re aware that probably puts a bit of a target on our back, but we want to be a top-six side, that's what we’re all trying to achieve. We are attempting to build this football club to be really successful.

‘We understand the fans’ frustration, we know they want to be really successful, but we have to do it the right way and the best way for the future of the football club.

‘We don’t want the boom and bust mentality, the dangers of putting a lot of money into a budget for one year and being left with some unsustainable problems, we have to continue to grow that and continue to grow the football club.

‘But, ultimately, promotion is the aim. That’s why I joined, why John (Mousinho) joined, why Andy Cullen joined, and why all the brilliant staff at this club joined. We all want to see this club in the Championship.

‘There is absolutely no guarantee of that being next year, but we will guarantee we’ll work as hard as physically possible to be able to give ourselves the best chance of achieving it.’

Pompey had been languishing in 15th place – seven points above the relegation zone – when Mousinho took over from Danny Cowley in January.

His subsequent haul of 39 points from the next 23 games drove them into eighth, albeit missing out on the play-offs by three points.

Hughes added: ‘We were disappointed at how the end of the season panned out. From John taking over in mid-table and conversations about the slope towards relegation, which perhaps we didn’t share internally, we got ourselves within a striking chance of the play-offs.

‘We fell short probably because of our performances in a couple of games and share fans’ frustration. We’re now at a point where we don’t have any more games to play, when we could have had two more or potentially a third.

‘That drives us to be successful next year because we don’t want to be in this situation too many times moving forward.’