They’ve reached the Premier League after building solid Championship foundations. Chief executive Andy Cullen sees replicating Coventry City’s success as achievable for Pompey.
Andy Cullen pinpointed Coventry City’s player trading as the benchmark for Pompey.
The Blues chief executive believes the Championship winner’s pathway to the Premier League is a realistic route for his club to follow.
Cullen on Coventry: ‘They were then able to go to next level of spend’
The football operation is currently building for a third term in the second tier, after an 18th-placed finish last season and 16th final berth in the 2023-24 campaign.
That is not a world away from Coventry claiming 16th on their return to the division from League One in 2020 and 12th finish the following term.
Then there was the runaway success of Viktor Gyokeres, who arrived in 2021 from Brighton for around £1m in 2021 and moved to Sporting Lisbon for £17.5m three years ago.
That then bankrolled deals for the likes of Haji Wright (£7.7m), Ellis Simms (£3.5m), Liam Kitching (£4m), Ephron Mason-Clark (£4.25m) Jack Rudoni (£5m), Victor Torp (£2m), Bobby Thomas (£2m) and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto (£1.2m), who provided the cornerstone of their title win this term.
Pompey’s own trading model is now developing assets in the likes of Adrian Segecic and Terry Devlin, with both players seeing their market values soar.
He said: ‘If you look at Coventry and when they were promoted from League One to the Championship, they had a couple of seasons when they finished around 16th.
‘They were spending around £1m-£2m, not dissimilar to what we’ve done here. They were able to cash in and, in a very considered way, signed players who were under the age of 23 and selling at around 25 or 26.
‘They were then able to go to the next level of spend if you like, and recruit a different type of player who became assets. The squad value was then increased significantly.
‘It’s one to look at. Every club is different, but you can see a methodology there.
‘You can see Coventry brought low and sold high. They then bought a bit higher and retained a core of players to get them prompted to the Premier League.
‘They paid fees for saound 12 or 13 players who’ve got them to that position.
‘Last year they went for an older player which helped as well. They had the play-offs for two years and added Matt Grimes and Luke Woolfenden, an older player to help them over the line.
‘We feel Ebou Adams in January isn’t tied to the model but was essential to help us progress. It shows you can have that framework, but may stray outside of that to help your overall recruitment strategy.’
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