Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Former Wolves boss Kenny Jackett is proving to be the perfect fit yet again

But should he secure a fourth promotion over the coming week, then it will only add weight to the argument that Kenny Jackett should be managing at the highest level.

Today his Portsmouth side go to Sunderland for a potential winner-takes-all clash at the top end of League One. It has been a battle royale at the promotion chasing end of the division, with Luton Town setting the title-winning pace, closely followed by Barnsley, Portsmouth, Sunderland and Charlton Athletic.

Portsmouth, in third place with a game in hand on second-placed Barnsley, have destiny in their own hands. Win today, and they will be in pole position to join Luton as the two most likely to go up automatically.

Jackett already has an impressive CV, but he would never be one to shout about it. The football industry, at its worst and most cynical, can be a fertile ground for fakes and frauds.

Hot air merchants blagging their way through life in roles way above their station. Players, managers, administrators, owners, agents, pundits. You name it, they can hide in plain sight in the football industry. “Bluffers”, as Roy Keane likes to call them.

The absolute antithesis of all this is Jackett. A man who has consistently gone about his job quietly and successfully throughout his long managerial career. There is not a hint of anything less than authenticity. A class act who, for want of a better term, cuts through the bull****.

It was Jackett who played an early part in the Swansea revolution, long before Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers were on the scene.

Back in 2004, The Swans were still playing at the near-condemned Vetch Field in the bottom division. For all its old world charms, the place was falling down.

Swansea, a year earlier, had only saved their Football League status on the last day of the season.

Jackett achieved promotion in his first full campaign, then took the side to the League One play-offs the following season, only losing out in the final to Barnsley.

He joined struggling League One club Millwall in 2007. After keeping the club in the division in his first full season he then took them to consecutive play-off finals, winning promotion to the Championship in 2010.

He kept the south-east London club in the second tier throughout his time at The Den, and also managed to take them to the FA Cup semi-final in 2013.

It was during that summer that he took over at Wolves. The job he did in turning things around at Molineux should not be under-estimated.

After two successive relegations, the ship needed more than just steadying. It was a complete u-turn that was required. Jackett bravely shunned the established players and sought about achieving promotion with a young and largely unproven team.

Wolves’ title-winning tally of 103 points that season remains a league record.

They only missed out on the Championship play-offs on goal difference to Ipswich the following season. With the team weakened by the sale of striker Benik Afobe and no team strengthening, the following campaign ended in mid-table.

During Fosun’s takeover of the club in the summer of 2016, Jackett knew he would not be in charge for another season, but carried on working diligently over the summer to prepare the team for the 2016/17 campaign.

It was this period that highlighted the integrity of the man, determined to carry out his duties to the best of this abilities despite the ongoing changes around him.

We will never know how he would have performed under Fosun during that troubled 2016/17 season. Instead, a short stay at Championship relegation candidates Rotherham followed in mid-season, where Jackett resigned after just five games in charge on discovering the role had too many difficulties behind the scenes to give him a chance of keeping the club up.

Now, at Portsmouth, he stands on the brink of a third promotion from League One. The Pompey fans have already had a season to celebrate, lifting the Football League Trophy in front of 85,000 fans last month. It is the second time Jackett has won the competition.

Barring that exceptional month at Rotherham, Jackett has always left a club in a far better state than he has found it. The foundations he put down at Swansea and Wolves allowed his successors the opportunity to enjoy far greater rewards.

Jackett has never managed in the top flight, although he has plenty of experience there, having been a key member of Graham Taylor’s Watford team that finished second in the league behind champions Liverpool in 1983.

It is looking increasingly likely that the only chance he has of managing in the Premier League will be if he takes a team up. It is hard to imagine him being appointed to a post with a team already in the top division.

This season we have seen relegated Huddersfield and Fulham sack their managers and turn to overseas candidates in their failed bids to stay up.

That is fair enough, and this is meant as no slight on foreign coaches. But it would be a great shame if we never got to discover what Jackett could achieve with the right support at the highest level.

Whatever the outcome of this season’s promotion race, he already possesses a managerial career to be proud of.