Following their narrow loss to Manchester United in the season opening Community Shield, Portsmouth’s players have come out asking for the club’s owner to strengthen the squad.

Portsmouth are facing an arduous season, with the opening of a new front in Europe via the UEFA Cup adding to the pressure of repeating their domestic successes of the previous season.

“We need a bigger squad to finish seventh, sixth, fifth in the league,” Portsmouth defender Sylvain Distin told the Telegraph, adding: “If we sign a few more players we will be a stronger team, then we will have no choice but to try to finish higher and I feel we can do that.”

Distin’s sentiments are akin to those of Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp who recently expressed a desire to add stronger players to the squad as it attempts to entrench its new position amongst the elite of English football.

These statements put club owner Alexandre Gaydamak under pressure to invest more money in the club, knowing that differences in budgets are essentially what separate the top four club’s in English football from the chasing pack.

Portsmouth player Niko Kranjcar summed up the situation by saying: “When you see the top four you see not just the best players in England, but also some of the best players in the world. One of the main reasons they can get them is money – what they can spend in transfer fees and in wages.”