Published accounts show £2.3m spent on players - and details disputed Marquis fee
POMPEY SPLASHED out £2.3m on player recruitment for last season’s unsuccessful promotion bid.
And that spending spree was driven by £2.2m brought into Fratton Park, primarily from the sale of Jamal Lowe to Wigan.
Accounts filed at Companies House for the year ending June 30, 2020, reveal the full extent of the Blues’ transfer activity last term.
For the 12 months from July 1, 2019, Kenny Jackett spent fees on John Marquis, Marcus Harness and Reeco Hackett-Fairchild.
Accounts show those purchases totalled £2,316,234, also consisting of agent costs.
However, that figure does not include Ellis Harrison, whose June 2019 arrival from Ipswich for £425,000 was contained in the previous set of accounts.
Nonetheless, the numbers demonstrate Jackett was backed healthily by Pompey’s owners ahead of the 2019-20 League One campaign.
Harness (£800,000 from Burton) and Marquis (£1m from Doncaster) both arrived in July 2019.
Reeco Harkett-Fairchild was snapped up from Bromley in January 2020 for a fee believed to be around £80,000.
Indeed, the winger, who is currently on loan at Southend, represents the last transfer fee Pompey paid until Callum Johnson’s arrival in September 2020.
Crucially, the Blues were bankrolled on that recruitment drive by the sale of Lowe to Championship Wigan in August 2019.
Pompey made almost £2m from the deal, which also included a sell-on fee to Hampton & Richmond.
In total, £2,236,360 was brought into Fratton Park for the 12 months from July 1, 2019.
That consists of the sales of Lowe, a £75,000 sell-on received for Conor Chaplin following his move from Coventry to Barnsley, and transfer of Anton Walkes to Atlanta United.
In addition, the departures of Louis Dennis (Leyton Orient) and
Leon Maloney (FC Volendam) for minimal fees bolstered club coffers.
In the previous year’s accounts, Pompey spent £940,078 on players and agent fees.
This consisted of Harrison, Ronan Curtis, Anton Walkes, Andy Cannon, Bryn Morris and Petar Durin.
Over that same period, they pocketed £3.33m from the sales of Matt Clarke (Brighton) and Chaplin (Coventry).