Mick Robertson

And of course, as usual, everybody is playing the same waiting game, trying to get the balance right.

And what never really gets talked about is the fact that there are complex negotiations taking place at every club.

involving hundreds of players.

In Pompey's case, perhaps not just the six that we know we want to bring in, down to four now that we've brought two in, but not just those four.

As John Massino indicated, there will be players who they will turn to if their number one selection, their preference, goes elsewhere.

A deal can't be done.

And so that list will probably be, in Pompey's case, and I'm just taking a shot here, there could be a dozen or more, 20 or 30 players whose people, agents, are being spoken to and they're trying to draw together a list of priorities for the various parts of the pitch where they want to have some new faces, or to be more precise, some new legs.

And it is a matter of striking a balance because you do want to get the best player you possibly can, your preference, in.

But if that falls through, other clubs do have deeper pockets.

There can be other means, matters that are taken into consideration when a player has to decide between club A, B and C, the geography of the thing.

He might want to stay in the location that he is on.

already act because they've got a young family and the kids are settled at school all of these things come into the it come into consideration and then of course there is the status of the club it hasn't been said but i often wondered whether yang was happy for tottenham

to recall him because they said um there's a possibility that you'll be going to a more a club whose position in the league at the moment is far uh more status ridden than than that of pompey and they're they're red hot favorites to be playing in the premier league next season uh so that's the standard that they're at and that is the status that they have so all of those things go into the mix

with the players and their agents and their families to decide which club they go to.

And Pompey will be on the possible list for about, as mentioned, a dozen, 20, 30 perhaps, players.

And all of those negotiations are lengthy and complex, whether they're taking place live on the phone or by Zoom, or more likely by a series of either email exchanges or even telephone message exchanges, we'll never know.

But we have to trust that Pompey get it right, which they more or less have done every time it's been Hughes and Massino, and that by the 1st of February, I think it is, or it might be the 2nd of February,

We've got ourselves a full, rich squad of players who have youth and players who have experience.

That's one of the big balances that he's talking about.

Yes, young Tom Chappell got it more or less right, didn't he?