Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Mitchell: Club is within budget on signings
CHAIRMAN Eddie Mitchell insisted Cherries would continue to live within their means after revealing the club had been prudent with their recent transfer dealings.[LNB] A flurry of activity over the past few days at Dean Court has seen boss Eddie Howe bolster his resources with the addition of no fewer than six new recruits.[LNB] Howe has drafted in proven quartet Marc Pugh, Steve Lovell, Michael Symes and Steve Purches, and non-league pair Harry Arter and Mitchell Nelson with not a transfer fee between them.[LNB] And although Cherries may have to pay nominal compensation to Hereford, Woking and Tooting & Mitcham for Pugh, Arter and Nelson, respectively, Mitchell maintains the purse strings have not been overly stretched.[LNB] New one-year deals were offered to Steve Fletcher, Josh McQuoid and Shaun Cooper, while the club is also obliged to meet options for Lee Bradbury, Warren Cummings and Danny Hollands.[LNB] And while boss Howe did have some room to manoeuvre after opting not to re-engage Sammy Igoe, Scott Guyett, Alan Connell and Jeff Goulding, Cherries are still likely to have one of the lowest budgets in League One.[LNB] Mitchell told the Daily Echo: We have given Eddie a budget which we have looked at very closely and we have not broken that budget. I have left it to Eddie to choose who he needs and to negotiate with them to tie them up.[LNB] Whether it be one, six or 10 signings, he has had a free hand to go along those lines and we are backing him to make the right decisions and the right choices.[LNB] He has spent a lot of time and effort trying to find the right guys and has spent a lot of time negotiating with them and encouraging them to come to us.[LNB] Since completing his takeover with the Murry Group last summer, majority shareholder Mitchell has made giant strides into reducing the club's debt.[LNB] And mindful of the fact that some of the historical financial problems were down to overspending on the playing front, Mitchell is determined to avoid falling into the same trap.[LNB] He said: We are being sensible. We know what budget we have got and don't want to end up back where we were. We have taken a year to clear virtually everything and don't want to go back to square one.[LNB]
