Source: Eurosport
Blackburn balance books with transfers - Williams
Blackburn chairman John Williams has admitted almost half of the money from this summer's transfer fees had to be used to balance the books at Ewood Park instead of being ploughed back into new players.
Despite the likes of Roque Santa Cruz, Matt Derbyshire and Stephen Warnock being sold off for around £26million, manager Sam Allardyce has spent just over half that amount on acquiring replacements.
That has led to a plenty of disquiet among Rovers fans but Williams said economies had to be made at the club with £12.5million of their transfer income being used to cover budgetary deficiencies.
The sacking of Paul Ince and his backroom staff and the appointment of Allardyce and his team plus a drop in the number of televised matches Blackburn were involved in led to a £7.5million hole in the budget as the unplanned January arrivals of Gael Givet and El-Hadji Diouf pushed the annual wage bill to £46million.
"I'm not entirely comfortable about funding wages from transfer fees but developing players, buying low and selling high has, by necessity, become part of our business," said Williams.
"I suppose the most sobering thing about this is that even if we stretch ourselves to achieve break-even at operating level that still leaves nothing for player acquisition. So trading is the name of the game."
