Kenny Jackett has praised the squad he has inherited at Pompey - saying it can give the club a head-start in League One.

He was speaking as he dismissed worries that the club wouldn't have a budget to compete with the top teams in the third tier next season.

Jackett believes the budget - reported to be around the £3m mark for next season - is one he can work with, telling The News: ‘When you do talk about budgets they can be confusing. There are clubs who go down and through existing contracts, have the biggest budgets. That doesn’t make them the strongest. We are in a good position going from League Two to League One with momentum.

‘Budgets can sometimes be deceptive because of that. Is there a lot of scope and space in that budget at the moment? No, there’s not. It’s not massive but the plus side for me is that most positions — if not all — have players and competition.

‘Clubs when they come down have a big budget whether they like it or not — and most times they don’t. When you are going up a level you can prove and achieve. Overachieving is something you have to do in football management. You have to overachieve and we’re looking to do that

‘These players have been coached and have a defined style. I’m not taking a mish-mash of a squad. There are one or two holes, obviously, but there is time to look at that. So, in terms of the budget, it’s not something I particularly worry about.

‘If you were starting completely from scratch you are scratching around. I wouldn’t necessarily want that but we have an existing squad of enthusiastic players — and I’m looking forward to working with them.’

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