After the disappointment of last season which was ultimately rescued by Pompey cult hero Andy Awford, this campaign surely must be about achieving promotion via any means necessary.
Automatic promotion should be the aim in all honesty as there are no excuses for not getting the job done this season. Things off-the-pitch seem to be going smoothly whilst the manager has added some quality players to his squad without the complete overhaul of personnel experienced in the past few pre-seasons.
All the deadwood has been cleared out during the summer too. Nobody is going to miss the likes of Yassin Moutaouakil and John Sullivan and the only real losses from last season could be Sonny Bradley if he ever develops a footballing brain and Simon Ferry if he can ever find his fitness.
On the other hand, the players Awford has brought into the club seem to be good quality. Paul Jones has played at Championship level, Craig Westcarr and James Dunne were good performers in League One last season whilst Nigel Atangana and Miles Storey have looked good in pre-season and could be shrewd signings.
Of course, some people were saying the same thing about Guy Whittingham's signings last season and they turned out to be less than impressive so caution should be urged whilst assessing the new blood. Still, Awford has at least managed a double coup by making the signing of the outstanding Danny Hollands permanent and by securing Jed Wallace on a long-term contract. Both players will surely be hugely important to the success of our football club this season.
With those players alongside Ricky Holmes and the currently injured Wes Fogden, you could argue that Awford has the best midfield in League Two at his disposal. The front line also boasts a nice variety with Ryan Taylor doing the hold up job whilst Westcarr is capable of poaching goals, Storey should attack defences with his pace and Patrick Agyemang can always be used as a battering ram/last resort late in a game if required.
Whilst the midfield and the attack look strong, the same cannot be said about the defence. The back four conceded far too many goals last season especially in the last few minutes of games. Awford's only solution to this problem so far has been to loan in a Millwall centre back for a month and borrow a Palace full back for the season and even then it looks like neither of them will be picked in the starting line-up immediately.
That means that the back four of Adam Webster, Jack Whatmough, Ben Chorley and Nicky Shorey will start the season together and that's a worry given how disorganised they were at times last season. Webster and Whatmough undoubtedly have talent but are prone to errors of judgement as you'd expect for players so young whilst the more experienced defenders lack the pace and in Chorley's case, discipline, to be consistent performers.
Unless Awford somehow manages to find a formula that works to knit this backline together so it can keep clean sheets every now and then. If he can't then it's up to James Dunne to do his defensive duties in midfield and protect the back four.
Dunne is arguably the most important player in this Pompey team as the pressure is on him to win every tackle and work with Hollands on a midfield partnership which has shown a lot of promise in pre-season. Hopefully he can marshall the midfield without picking up too many bookings because any spells out of the team are likely to be felt with no adequate replacement in the Pompey squad.
Which brings me onto the other concern this season and that is Pompey's squad depth. For once, the squad has been bulked up and contains a good number of players but how many of these players can be relied on to do a good job when they have to replace a regular first-team player?
Can Joe Devera and Johnny Ertl be relied on to shore up the defence towards the end of a match? Will Andy Barcham rediscover his form from early last season? Will the likes of Ryan Bird and Tom Craddock be any use rather than a complete waste of space? Can the youth players like Dan Butler, Nick Awford and Bradley Tarbuck step up and make an impact this season?
Those questions are difficult to answer and unless the answer to most of them is "yes" then it may be that Awford doesn't have a squad capable of sustaining an automatic promotion challenge. If so, then his scouting network will be tested as he looks to bring in extra players to improve the squad further, especially when the winter arrives and the squad is tested to its limits.
If Pompey are to be challenging for promotion this season then they'll have some stiff competition. Bury have signed some good players whilst relegated Shrewsbury have had a complete overhaul under new manager Micky Mellon who knows the lower leagues very well and has also brought ex-Pompey midfielder Liam Lawrence to the club.
Luton are another side being touted as favourites for promotion simply because they walked the Conference last season but they've lost a couple of key players. The better bets might be on the three losing play-off teams from last season who all seem to have strengthened and will be better equipped after last season's disappointment.
Promotion may be a tough ask for Pompey but the bottom line is that League Two is the worst division in the Football League and is no place for a club of Portsmouth's size. There are four promotion places available and now that Andy Awford has had time to gel a squad together with no issues off the pitch to distract him he is under pressure to deliver despite his relative inexperience.
It's imperative his team starts well with a reasonable looking August fixture list otherwise the knives will be out and the fear will be that another club legend could well be shown the door much like Whittingham was last year could be realised.
However, Awford has already shown he is capable of managing this club after the feat he performed last season and with an improved squad at his disposal which is capable of scoring plenty of goals and playing good football the optimism around Fratton Park is high once again, albeit more cautiously this time. This could well be the season where things finally start looking up for Pompey.