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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Since completing his takeover with the Murry Group last summer, majority shareholder Mitchell has made giant strides into reducing the club's debt. 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. 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.