And chief executive Andy Cullen remains firm he believes broadly doing so is the right strategy for the Blues.
Cullen’s views come in the face of some criticism the club didn’t focus enough on players for the immediacy, amid the 15 new faces who arrived in the summer.
He acknowledged there’s learning to take from what unfolded, but feels looking to build for the future is the right strategy.
Cullen said: ‘I think you can learn from every window.
‘We have a very fixed strategy – we want to go out and create assets for the football club.
‘We can assess back, look at it and say okay where do we need to go in January now?
‘It’s constantly evolving and it’s very difficult to get everything right the minute you come in.
‘But I think the balance of what we were trying to achieve though (in the summer) was aligned to our strategy.
‘I don’t want to deviate from that too much, because it’s then mixed messages going out in terms of sporting directors and coaches. We have really strong alignment between John (Mousinhi), Rich (Hughes), myself and the board.
‘There’s no easy quick fix to it, but I’m confident over the longer term the club will benefit from this strategy. That’s what you have to ultimately be assessed by.
‘There’s too much lurching in football. John is now one of the longest-serving head coaches in the Championship up in the top quartile.
‘We’re committed to the longer term and that long-term strategy shows is epitomised by the contracts we gave John and Rich. We know what we want to build toward.
‘I’ve been in the game for nearly 27 years and it’s something you see. The greatest opportunities and times of success are when you’re committed to something which is longer term.
‘Every promotion I have every experienced has been as a consequence of that longer term strategy.’
Pompey have made it clear they will look at bringing in players to improve their Championship hopes in January, with loans being explored along with permanent additions.
Cullen feels the Blues needed to move away from the extent they had previously relied on temporary additions, however.
And when looking at the players who came in over the summer window, he sees a mix of additions for now and those who can be moulded into assets for the club.
He added: ‘We had a situation here where our recruitment focus had predominantly been looking at players above League One coming down. A number of those players were also coming to the end of their careers.
‘We also had a situation where we were spending twice as much as any other club on loan players in League One. That gave us a real problem in terms of creating long-term assets for the football club. It was great if you went up, but if you didn’t go up where did you then go to?
‘I think our team which went up was particularly strong and we were unlucky to lose players in key positions.
‘At centre-back Conor Shaughnessy has been a huge miss, arguably one of our best players of last season. We also lost our top scorer over the past two seasons, in terms of Colby (Bishop). Then we had a number of injuries and went into the season with a centre-back crisis.
‘We tried to balance signings out with a modicum of experience and went out and got established Championship players such as Josh Murphy, who was probably one of the most coveted out-of-contract players. Then there was Matt Ritchie and everyone has seen over the past couple of games what Matt can bring us as well.
‘Then some of the younger ones, who are going to come in through the season, establish themselves and be long-term assets for the football club. Then some has been able to make instant impacts, the likes Freddie Potts and Nico Schmid have come in and done that.
‘We obviously had Regan Poole coming back to fitness which has been brilliant for us and Andre Dozzell is a player with around 100 Championship appearances under his belt. He’s grown into the team over the past couple of games.
‘We were devastated about Ibane Bowat, because we felt he was a really good addition to the squad as well. That’s been a really difficult one for us, but I think it was aligned to what we’re doing here.’
‘I think our team which went up was particularly strong and we were unlucky to lose players in key positions.
‘At centre-back Conor Shaughnessy has been a huge miss, arguably one of our best players of last season. We also lost our top scorer over the past two seasons, in terms of Colby (Bishop). Then we had a number of injuries and went into the season with a centre-back crisis.
‘We tried to balance signings out with a modicum of experience and went out and got established Championship players such as Josh Murphy, who was probably one of the most coveted out-of-contract players. Then there was Matt Ritchie and everyone has seen over the past couple of games what Matt can bring us as well.
‘Then some of the younger ones, who are going to come in through the season, establish themselves and be long-term assets for the football club. Then some has been able to make instant impacts, the likes Freddie Potts and Nico Schmid have come in and done that.
‘We obviously had Regan Poole coming back to fitness which has been brilliant for us and Andre Dozzell is a player with around 100 Championship appearances under his belt. He’s grown into the team over the past couple of games.
‘We were devastated about Ibane Bowat, because we felt he was a really good addition to the squad as well. That’s been a really difficult one for us, but I think it was aligned to what we’re doing here.’
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