Portsmouth owner Eric Eisner on the 'monumental decision' which inspired their Championship return

Eric Eisner has pinpointed the ‘monumental decision’ which drove Pompey’s Championship return.

The Blues concluded their lengthy hunt for a sporting director with the recruitment of Rich Hughes from Forest Green Rovers in September 2022.

Overseen by chief executive Andy Cullen, it represented a new role at the club, albeit with Roberto Gagliardi previously serving as head of football operations on an interim basis.

According to Eisner, owners Tornante had long intended to create the position having seen its success in American sports, with Cullen handed the remit upon his own arrival in May 2021.

Despite some scepticism over Hughes and the job at the time, he has transformed the Blues - and next season they’ll be lining up in the Championship.

Eisner told The News: ‘In America, every team has a general manager and a coach.

‘The general manager thinks long-term, the coach thinks short-term. The general manager chooses the players and moves them to the coach. The coach plays the players and develops them.

‘So, from our standpoint, that was always the obvious thing to do but when you get here you can’t just change the culture overnight, it was something which had to come over time. When we felt the time was right, we went and did what we did.

‘It is one of the most important positions in the club and obviously we chose the right people. It was a monumental decision, we love Rich.

‘Everybody is sceptical about change, yet we knew it was change for the better. It was pretty amazing to us that the English game and some of the biggest clubs in the world are still run where the manager runs everything. We are seeing short-term and long-term.

‘There is a general manager of the Detroit Lions of the NFL, he talks about grit. Every player that he drafted had to have a certain grit to fit into the Detroit model.

‘At Pompey under Rich, everybody had to fit into the whole club moving forward - and he has chosen every well.’

Hughes previously served at Tamworth, Stoke, Burnley, Wigan and Everton in various scouting, analysis and recruitment roles.

Yet it was his performance as Forest Green’s director of football which earned him the Pompey job, having initially turned it down five months earlier.

Eisner added: ‘Rich has been planning for staying in League One and going into the Championship for months, while John hasn’t even thought about it apart from winning games each week.

‘Using those two as examples, it kind of sums it all up. A lot of teams finished their season last weekend - and if your coach is just starting to think about next year, surely you’ll be at a disadvantage.’