Paul Cook has been explaining his decision to bring in his own assistant manager and coach - as Paul Hardyman ewaits to see if the club will offer him a new role.

Cook has brought his right-hand men Leam Richardson and Ian Foster with him to Fratton, saying he believes it is important he works alongside people he knows.

He told The News: ‘Football is a very tough industry and when you do go into clubs I think it’s important that you do have people around you, first and foremost, that you trust. That is no disrespect at all to the people here because they are good lads with good names in football.

'But it helps that we already know each other, and we know our roles. It’s important that they know the manager and how I work — I think that is the most important thing.’

Cook added: ‘It’s quite normal nowadays for managers to bring in some of their own staff. Clubs have different structures these days with academies and some staff can be long-serving staff.'

Meanwhile Hardyman has had meetings with Cook but is waiting to see what his role could be at Pompey. He could survive the sweeping changes that has seen many others leave but is philosophical about the possibility that he may not have a Blues future.

Hardyman told The News: ‘We’ve had a couple of conversations and Paul told me he would like me to stay on in some capacity, which was great of him. So I’m hopeful something may come out of it.

‘The only conversations I’ve had with him were about my future — I wasn’t involved with the decisions on players’ contracts or anything else. I fully understand he is looking to sign players and certainly has more important priorities than me at the moment, so I’m just waiting to hear from him again.’

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