'Worth the wait': Portsmouth finally welcome ex-Manchester City, Liverpool and Wolves man to bolster transfer power

Rich Hughes has praised ‘innovative’ Brad Wall as Pompey finally got their man.

The highly-regarded talent spotter had been placed on garden leave by Manchester City earlier this year after informing them of his desire for a Fratton Park switch.

Nonetheless, today represents his first day as the Blues’ new head of recruitment, the role vacated by Phil Boardman.

As previously revealed by The News, Wall served as the reigning Premier League champions’ Northern UK scouting manager, while previously worked at Wolves, Glasgow Rangers and Liverpool.

In addition, as the FA’s men’s performance analyst, he worked for England under-19s when they clinched the 2017 Uefa European Under-19 Championships in Portugal.

Now he has arrived at Pompey to bolster recruitment ahead of their long-awaited Championship return.

Hughes told The News: ‘Brad has served his notice period and I’m delighted to bring him in. He’s smart, he’s diligent, good at his job, well connected, and has a really good eye for a player.

‘We felt it was going to be worth the wait to ensure we got the right person as opposed to the quick person. He was a really strong choice to lead the department and help us to continue to get better.

‘Brad’s a person and practitioner who fits in with what we are trying to do. His eye for detail comes from an analysis background and he also has a level of understanding the game.

‘He talks authenticity, he’s pleasant, polite, humble, respectful, and has a real understanding and diligence of football.

‘His remit will be very similar to Phil’s (Boardman). Brad will lead and assist all the part-time scouts, he’ll be the trusted senior eyes to watch players, he will be happy to oversee a lot of the video work and data work, and will have a lot of preliminary conversations with agents.

‘I’ve done the role previously, it is wide and encapsulating, so you need people with high self-motivation because they work by themselves for a long period of time.

‘You also need an innovative approach, trying different things and working out different markets, factoring different ideas into the equation.’

Boardman left for Everton in February after seeing out a January transfer window in which Pompey signed five new players to bolster their push for the Championship.

He is now the Toffeemen’s senior European scout, having spent six-and-a-half years at Fratton Park - and Hughes paid tribute to the work of his former colleague.

The Blues’ sporting director added: ‘Brad will carry on the excellent work done by Phil Boardman and the staff before Phil departed to Everton.

‘Phil is also a very good friend of mine from working closely with him and has been as big a part of this success as anyone.

‘He can lay a lot of claim in terms of the groundwork done with the recruitment. He’s been a really big part of it.’