Sunderland's rivals in League One insist they won't 'buy' promotion during interesting admission

The Blues are currently in 11th place in the League One table, nine points off the play-offs and 18 from second place Wigan.

Pompey are 11 points behind Sunderland with Alex Neil’s side occupying fourth position after just one win in eight League One fixtures.

But Cowley has explained the club’s model going forward after Portsmouth were reportedly beaten to targets by teams spending bigger transfer fees in January.

Scott Twine allegedly evaded them as their counterparts beat them to the services of influential figures.

However, Pompey were able to sign Aiden O’Brien and Denver Hume from Sunderland but it was admitted that the Black Cats had helped with the financials involved in the January deals.

He said: “We’ve got clarity with where we’re at, the self-awareness which I think is important, a vision of where we want to go and now it just needs a lot of hard work.

“We’re not going to buy ourselves to the top of League One, we’re going to get there with our skillset, and with a real work ethic. And I think when we get there, it will be that much more rewarding as a consequence."

He continued via the Portsmouth News: “When I first spoke to Michael and the Eisner family, what I was most impressed with was the fact they were trying to build stability. I always think, if you want to be successful, then you need to have strong foundations.

“I was really impressed with the fact they were willing to invest this amount of money into the stadium. And they wanted to stay at Fratton Park, and it’s a wonderful place to play football.

“They also wanted to buy the training ground, and for any club to be successful they’ve got to have their own training ground. Particularly for it to be in Portsmouth was brilliant.

“They want to run the club in a sustainable way, and there’s a lot of examples of football clubs being run in an unsustainable way, and we all know how that ends.”

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