Andrew Moon column: How Portsmouth have used loan signings to try to escape clutches of League One
- Published
Portsmouth spent an extra £738,000 on loan players, which included goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and striker Tyler Walker, in 2021-22 compared to the season before
I don't think anyone becomes a football reporter because they enjoy reading financial accounts.
Nonetheless, the yearly filings do provide an interesting window into how things have worked at a club.
Portsmouth's current hierarchy are pretty open with fans about spending, investment and infrastructure projects so there were no big surprises when the financial report for the 2021-22 season was released.
Many clubs look to run with a small operating loss which would be cancelled out should the club have a brilliant cup run or sell a key player for big money.
That being said, a quick look at many Championship clubs would severely test that definition of 'small.'
After combing through the 35 pages (and sending a few bits to a friend of mine who's an accountant for a bit of help) one number stood out and it was one that Portsmouth didn't even have to publish.
In the 2021-22 season Pompey spent £738,000 more on loan players than in the 2020-21 season.
Boom or bust nature of loan signings
Portsmouth's playing budget last season was around the £4m mark, perhaps a tad over.
The loan signings were fairly modest but when you add £738,000 to the cost of those loans you have Pompey likely spending more than £1m pounds and in excess of 25% of the playing budget on loan players, with the caveat that these are fairly simplistic "back of the envelope" calculations.
Is spending that much on loans a bad thing?
That depends on your perspective.
Obviously you would want your best players to be permanent signings but Gavin Bazunu, George Hirst and Hayden Carter were three of Pompey's top performers last season and not individuals the Blues could have afforded on permanent deals.
On the flip side, Miguel Azeez struggled massively, Gassan Ahadme was a fairly cheap failure, with Tyler Walker a significantly costlier one.
'Expect cheaper loan players next season'
After the January window the EFL send out internally a "benchmarking" report for each division showing the spending of clubs.
I have been shown a copy of the League One report for this season and the numbers for the top few clubs are eye-watering for the third tier (you can probably guess who they are).
Pompey's budget this season might be one third that of the highest spenders but it's still high enough to be competing for the play-offs.
When you look at teams in League One that have made surprise promotion pushes in recent years loan players have often been key.
Bali Mumba at Plymouth looks one of the best players in the division and Lincoln made some excellent loan signings when they reached the play-off final a few years ago
So by that logic I can understand why a club in Portsmouth spent what they did on loans in the past couple of seasons, even if it couldn't deliver a play-off place.
Kenny Jackett tended to use the loan market to fill out his squad while Danny Cowley felt the financial state of League One meant he needed to look for loans to be key players.
John Mousinho says there needs to be a balance - but expect fewer and cheaper loan players next season.
Whatever the strategy, the expectation is to be battling for promotion and finally leaving League One behind.
If this year isn't to be for Pompey, seeing a few of the big spenders promoted would certainly make next season a little easier.
You can hear every Pompey match live on BBC Radio Solent with Andy Moon and former Blues striker and manager Guy Whittingham.
