Portsmouth FC may look at Cardiff City wondering "what if" this season: View | OneFootball

Portsmouth missed out on last season's loan hero Alex Robertson to new Championship rivals Cardiff City

Highlights

Portsmouth will be full of optimism after initiating their long-awaited 2024/25 Championship crusade over the weekend, but a tinge of disappointment will linger for some time after missing out on a return for Alex Robertson at the hands of Cardiff City.

Following years of dismay, heartbreak and effectively being the "nearly-men", Portsmouth finally ended their 10-year Championship absence by romping to the League One title with 97 points to their name in the previous season.

In the aftermath of promotion, the likes of Sammy Silvera, Josh Murphy and Matt Ritchie all represent encouraging business for the South Coast club in their bid to re-consolidate in English football's second-tier under the tutelage of John Mousinho, who has finally brought the feel-good factor back to Fratton Park.

Saturday afternoon's thrilling 3-3 draw away at Leeds United, in which Portsmouth were only denied of three significantly impressive points on the road by Brendan Aaronson in the 95th minute, welcomed further excitement as to what Portsmouth could achieve this season. That feeling, though, would have only been heightened even more had they not been beaten by Cardiff for the hotly-contested signature of last season's loan hero Robertson.

Cardiff City win Alex Robertson transfer race over Portsmouth

Rather unsurprisingly, Portsmouth had looked to challenge Cardiff's efforts to prize the midfield starlet away from Manchester City, but it simply wasn't to be.

Cardiff eventually won the race, which also included Hull City, by reportedly paying an initial £1m outlay and tying Robertson down to a four-year contract. The total fee, however, could treble to £3m while City have a 25% sell-on clause for the Australian international.

It definitely appears as though Portsmouth realistically did everything in their power to return Robertson, with Mousinho telling The News: "There’s loads of reasons [why a player joins a club], there’s always a variety of reasons.

"The only thing I’d say about Alex, in terms of where we are as a football club and what we could do, is we did everything we could.

"We pushed it as far as we could push it, so I’m sitting here now completely satisfied with everything we’ve done on the club side to do it - and we had the full backing of the owners to do that.

"It’s territory I’ve never experienced in my time as a head coach, certainly some of the figures and numbers we’re talking about. That’s something which is an obvious and natural thing to happen when you go into the Championship, but I’m really happy with everything we’ve done there and I have no complaints about that.

"Players will choose other clubs and that’s just part of life - it’s something you have to live with."

Portsmouth will look at Cardiff City with envy

Portsmouth supporters have simply been gutted while discussing Robertson's move to the Cardiff City Stadium - and who can blame them?

Prior to his season-ending injury at the turn of the year, Robertson was among the very finest operators in the third-tier but his profile and age means that his influence can translate itself to the Championship.

An elegant and highly-technical central midfielder, Robertson is comfortable on the half-turn and routinely looks to progress play with his ball-carrying and forward-thinking pass selection, which helps to get his side upfield and break defensive lines.

He did all of that to great aplomb at Portsmouth and will be expected to have a similar impact this season for Cardiff, who have been crying out for a player capable of dictating the tempo of games and advancing possession in the middle of the park for quite some time.

Naturally, at his age, he's only going to improve even further too. Mousinho also looks like he's going to be at Portsmouth for the long haul and Robertson showed just how well he aligned with the Head Coach's possession-based philosophy last term.

Missing out on such a tantalising potential long-term option is bound to be a real blow that won't go away easily - even if Portsmouth do feel poised to give the Championship a right good go this year.