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Why Portsmouth could steer clear of free-agent market in Championship fight with Derby County, Hull City and more
Pompey will get better value-for-money on the continent than in the domestic market.
That’s the verdict of The News’ reporter Jordan Cross, who believes the Blues have to be realistic where they place their money ahead of what is expected to be a busy window.
After the conclusion of the first part of the summer, there are no new arrivals so far through the doors at Fratton Park. That is likely to change when the shutters come up on June 16, with plenty of incomings and outgoings on the cards.
And that should be an area the Blues should focus on in the transfer window if they want to get the best value for money, according to Cross.
Speaking on the latest episode of Pompey Talk, he identified why Mousinho’s men could look away from the free-agent market in a bid to improve this summer.
Pompey transfer insight ahead of summer window
He said: ‘Jamal Lowe was mentioned (last summer). He was a free agent coming from the Premier League and he would’ve got a heck of a lot of money at Sheffield Wednesday.
‘If you gave that deal any consideration, it’s just so far beyond Pompey at the moment. It’s just not realistic even though they are looking to be progressive. You’ve got to be realistic about where Pompey want to place their money.
‘They probably want to place it in an area where young players can be developed when they’re paying top-end wages (for their budget). I think they’ll look at the type of money those players are going to generate in terms of wages.
‘Since they’ve come out of League One, there’s been a lot of noise about how much tougher it is in the Championship to get the requisite standard of players. Pompey want to progress and naturally it goes up.
‘I’ve put names to people at Pompey that – even in the last couple of windows – would’ve been reasonable names to expect. Rinomhota at Cardiff, he’s got local links and seems like a reasonable option, but I think they’re like “we need to reach higher than that”.
‘Nectar Triantis, the lad at Sunderland being linked, he got shortlisted for player of the year in Scotland. The fact of the matter is, that the noises which were made to me was that he wasn’t at the required level to come in and operate in the Championship. I know that’s upset a lot of Hibs fans, but let’s be fair between the levels of the Championship and the SPL.
‘So where do Pompey get the required level of operator from? We’re now looking at the continent. Do they get the same value at home? No, they don’t so that’s where they’re looking there.
‘And they’re looking to spend that couple of millions on a player then they’re going to go there as opposed to paying a free agent 30 grand a week, which is so far beyond what is going to be reasonable for Pompey’s wage bill.
‘They can pay a fee, it goes into the club’s sustainable philosophy, they can put him on a lower wage and it doesn’t wreck the wage bill. Whereas if you go and get a free agent on big money, that’s not sustainable for Pompey – that’s inflating the wage bill.
‘People are making five-year commitments at Championship level for contracts on big money, that’s not the way Pompey are going to work.
‘These projects – the stadium projects, the academy projects, the fees for players – that can work so that’s why they’re looking that way rather than paying the higher wages which we’re seeing at Championship level.’
