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Surviving in the Championship not beyond Pompey - but it would get tougher
Monday, 3rd Jun 2019 22:06 by pompey-fans.com staff

Mark Catlin says Pompey's financial structure means they would be ready to make the leap to the Championship - and could have done it even if they had gone up this year.

But he warned life in the Championship could get tougher the longer you stayed in it.

The Blues will next season make a third bid to reach the second tier after missing out in the play-offs this time.

Catlin told The News: ‘Yes, I'm 100-per-cent convinced we would've been ready for the Championship. That's because of the way our financial director/chief operating officer, Tony Brown, has constructed our player contracts and salaries.

‘Because of the clever way he's gone about things in previous years we would've had a huge margin for bringing in good players. Would we have been ready in year one? Yes. Would it have been a huge challenge in years two to five? Yes.

‘But that's not just applicable to Portsmouth. That's the case for every team who get promoted. Look at Millwall, for example, a great example.

‘They had a brilliant first-year bounce (after promotion) and just missed out on the play-offs. Then the year after that they just avoided relegation. After that first year you struggle to keep hold of your better players and they get cherry-picked.

‘Then before you know it you're in a spiral trying to attract players to replicate those players, the wages go up but your flexibility diminishes.

‘You can see that in the likes of Burton, while Rotherham went straight back down. Bolton was similar and Millwall just survived.’

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