Football Season Guide

Portsmouth entered the 2017/18 season hoping to secure back-to-back promotions but eventually fell short of that goal, as they missed out on a play-off place after finishing eighth in the league. Despite the failure to make the top six, the previous season was a decent one for Pompey, as they established themselves as a solid League One side and were always under the risk of collapsing, having lost their manager Paul Cook between the previous two seasons. Kenny Jackett has done a good job in his first season in charge and will now be hoping to make another step forward and make Portsmouth a Championship club. Several on-loan players have returned to their parent clubs, some bit-part players have left, while the sole player of real note contracted to the club to have left is Kal Naismith, who joined Wigan. Out of the new arrivals, Lee Brown and Tom Naylor are proven players at this level, while Louis Dennis and Ronan Curtis are stabs in the dark. Pompey also did well to complete the signing of Anton Walkes, who impressed while on loan from Tottenham last season. Pompey finished the previous season with the worst scoring record out of all the sides that finished inside the top half, and the main reason for this is that they were too dependent on Brett Pitman for goals and struggled during times when their skipper was sidelined by injuries. It is therefore no surprise that two of their six new signings are forward. All in all, Portsmouth have the same manager in charge and a squad similar to the one they had last time around. They will be confident of enjoying another decent league campaign.