Portsmouth's Ambitious Rebuild: Hughes Optimistic Despite Le Roux Mistake
Portsmouth sporting director Richard Hughes believes the club’s revamped squad can drive a serious push in the Championship, after a demanding but ambitious transfer window at Fratton Park.
Pompey brought in 12 new faces over the summer, leaning on what Hughes had already admitted was a significantly higher budget than in previous years. The intent was clear. So was the outlay.
Up-front fees for striker Marko Milovanovic and midfielder Rocco Shein alone surpassed Portsmouth’s entire transfer spend from last summer, underlining the scale of the rebuild and the club’s determination to establish themselves at the higher level.
Not that it all came easily.
"I'm pleased with a lot of the work that's taken place," Hughes told BBC Radio Solent, before lifting the lid on just how awkward this window became for recruitment teams across the division.
He described it as “one of the more challenging windows” of his time at the club, a view he said was shared around the market as sides wrestled with the demands and competition of Championship-level recruitment.
The payoff, he believes, will be seen once this new-look group settles.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing where the group plays out to be once they get a bit more comfortable with each other and have played a few more games," he said.
That’s the bet Portsmouth have made: spend big now, build depth, and let time do the rest.
"Overall I'm really pleased with the work that we've done and the strength in depth that we've added to the group," Hughes added. "I'm optimistic as to where we can go with this squad."
Strength in, value out
While the arrivals have generated excitement, the other side of the window told a more uncomfortable story.
Portsmouth struggled to bring in transfer fees for players who had slipped out of favour and were ready to move on. Andre Dozzell and Luke Le Roux both left Fratton Park for nothing, despite the club’s sizeable investment in the latter only a year earlier.
Le Roux’s case stings most. The Blues paid £1m for the South Africa midfielder, who started the season in John Mousinho’s plans but gradually dropped down the pecking order, ending the campaign with just 14 league appearances.
By the start of September, Portsmouth announced they had reached a mutual agreement to terminate his contract. No fee, no recouped value, just a clean break.
Dozzell departed earlier in the summer, signing for MLS side DC United. This week, Le Roux found his next step with a move to Belgian top-flight club Cercle Brugge.
Hughes did not try to deflect the criticism.
"With Luke's situation everyone will be right to point criticism towards myself, John and the recruitment department," he admitted. "It's one we have to take and we have to wear that, it was something that didn't work on our part and it didn't work for Luke on the pitch."
The club had pushed for a permanent transfer, hoping to claw back some of that £1m. That chance never arrived.
"We wanted to find a permanent solution for him to leave and that didn't present itself," Hughes said. "We'll take the learnings from this and make sure that it doesn't happen again."
So Portsmouth head into the season with a deeper, more expensive squad, a sporting director bullish about the ceiling of this group – and one costly misstep he has no intention of repeating.
