Portsmouth's chief executive Andy Cullen admits the club overspent in the transfer market in a bid to pip the likes of Sunderland to promotion this season.
Danny Cowley's side were among the most active in League One this summer, with the Blues managing to make 14 signings including the addition of Welsh international Joe Morrell.
Sunderland are currently listed as the bookmakers' favourites for promotion following a strong start to the season for the Black Cats.
Portsmouth are also ranked among the early contenders with the likes of Ipswich Town, Rotherham United and Sheffield Wednesday.
Cullen anticipates their summer spending will place the club in the division's top six for investment, and admits the owners gave 'latitude' to go above and beyond the agreed budget for transfer fees and wages.
The chief executive has also spoken about the challenges of competing with League One's big spenders in a 'very competitive' division.
He told Portsmouth's The News : "I think you’ve got one club who’ve skewed the market this summer.
"But if you then distill it down, you can almost feel where it is.
"We will get benchmarking reports around October time for the summer window.
"When we get that I think you will see, if you take one club out, Portsmouth have a very competitive budget compared to the rest.
"There are a lot of clubs aligned with Portsmouth around the top six/top eight mark.
"There’s more of a concentration this season which makes the division very competitive.
"But I know the type of budget Portsmouth have compared to previous years, and what other clubs have this year.
"It’s going to be right up there, and with that budget you’d expect to be challenging and competing around the top six."
