Portsmouth Admit Recruitment Failure Over £1m Signing
Portsmouth sporting director Rich Hughes has accepted recruitment criticism after Luke Le Roux left the club just 13 months into a three-year contract.
The midfielder cost Pompey £1m when he arrived from IFK Varnamo in July 2025, but made only 17 appearances in all competitions. After attempts to arrange a permanent transfer during the summer failed, the club agreed a settlement covering the remaining two years of his deal. He has since joined Belgian side Cercle Brugge on a two-year contract.
Asked by BBC Radio Solent whether the move represented a recruitment failure, Hughes replied:
“Absolutely it does.
“I think the point on Luke is that everyone would be quite right to point that out as a criticism at myself, John (Mousinho) and the recruitment department.
“It’s one we will have to take, we have to wear that, we have to be really uncomfortable and we have to be the ones to know that was something that just didn’t work out on our part.”
Hughes praised Le Roux’s professionalism and said the club would examine what went wrong. For a signing carrying a seven-figure fee, the return was clearly well below expectations, and the sporting director made no attempt to suggest otherwise.
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