League One CEO makes a transfer window prediction as 'beauty parade' ends

Doncaster Rovers have so far brought in Ben Close, Kyle Knoyle and Ro-Shaun Williams ahead of their impending return to pre-season training.

Prior to the arrival of Rotherham defender Clark Robertson last night, Pompey were one of a handful of League One clubs yet to make a significant breakthrough in the transfer market, but their CEO believes that there is little need to panic at present.

With players still assessing their options and talking to a number of clubs – in a process Cullen likened to a ‘beauty parade’ – a number of clubs are waiting on decisions.

But as we head into July, the Portsmouth chief expects to see the dominoes begin to fall as players begin to face the reality of their situations and commit to moves.

Speaking to the Portsmouth News, Cullen said: “It very rarely happens (the squad is together for the first day of training). We’ve seen that over the years.

“You tend to get a little bit of activity at the end of May and beginning of June.

"June then tends to be very quiet.

“Then it starts to grow at the end of June when people come back for pre-season.

“Players then potentially start to see they aren’t going to be popular at their existing clubs, and then start to agitate for moves.

"They then have to make decisions because the “beauty parade” of June, speaking to clubs and what may be best for them then suddenly starts to require some more consideration as to what’s going to happen.

"You’ve got the Euros so the Premier League then start to free up some of their players at the end of June and into July.

“That’s the case with some top-end Championship clubs as well.

“The season then kicks off, you get some injuries and that starts to affect the market as well.

“It’s a long window. I know we used to have 12 months to do transfers and it does focus the mind a little bit.

“But there’s different dynamics and different things to how it works.”