Chief executive Derek Bowden has confirmed that the Blues will have money with which to sign new players in the summer. The January purchase of Argentinian midfielder Luciano Civelli spent the last of Marcus Evans's initial £12 million investment.

Bowden told TWTD that there will be money for squad strengthening in the close season, but says that more players are likely to leave than come in: "We will have money to spend in the summer, but job number one is to right-size the squad.

"We clearly have too big a squad and we need to reduce the numbers first. Then we'll think about what we'll do with further investment, but the manager will have scope to bring in new players.

"The £12 million has been spent on players and wages throughout this season, so Marcus has spent what he committed to spend.

"There will be more money coming into the club, how much depends on what the squad looks like and whether we sell a player or two in the summer, because that could happen too.

"If we have income from a player sale, then that perhaps could offset the level of further investment that needs to be made.

"But they are all decisions we'll take in the summer. If we don't sell any players, allowing for the fact that there are some players who will be out of contract, we would need a further cash injection in the summer and that's been noted and agreed to.”

The emergency loan window has opened for Football League clubs and Bowden says more players could leave on temporary spells, although Town are unlikely to bring anyone else in at present: "Not at this moment in time. As far as I'm aware, as of today, there will be no movement in.

"But again, we've got a big squad. There are quite a few players out on loan already. Some of the younger ones are out on loan to get experience and Jordan Rhodes is benefiting hugely from that and is scoring goals.

"Then there are one or two others who will go out on loan to trying to get a permanent deal. We're actively trying to push more than a handful of players out on loan if we can.”

The chief executive says the Blues are weighing up whether to allow Rhodes to extend his loan spell: "Brentford would have loved to have taken him for the rest of the season, but we said no to give ourselves some flexibility.”

Under loan rules, Town can't bring Rhodes back until the end of his month with the Bees.

Luciano Civelli was Town's only senior addition to the squad in the transfer window and Bowden says the single signing was always the plan: "Aside from the deals for youngsters Ian McLoughlin and Josh Carson, we only really wanted to get a left-sided midfielder.”

Civelli was brought in for just over £1 million with Banfield having a 50% sell-on which the Blues have an option to buy out at a pre-agreed level.

The chief executive says the deal was slightly more complicated than the majority of signings: "It was a little bit more difficult because you've got the distance, language and culture, but not too much so, although the international clearance took four or five days to come through.

"We were very meticulous in the way we worded the structure of the agreement. We got FA and Football League agreement to the wording in advance of signing him, so there's no doubt in anyone's mind that we've done it the right way.

"Simon Hunt, Steve McCall and Charlie Woods had all been out there and in the end we did the deal directly with Banfield without using an agent.”

Bowden denied any contact with former Blue Hermann Hreidarsson during the transfer window and says Town received no offers or enquiries for any of their players, aside from those that moved on either on loan or in the case of Richard Naylor on a permanent deal to Leeds.

There is also nothing new on the Alex Bruce situation: "No, radio silence. No interest, no offers. We made an offer of a contract, as was publicised, and that's an end to it.”

Bowden says that further offers of new deals will wait until the summer: "I don't think there will be any more contracts offered until the end of the season.

"That's not to say we won't offer contracts to players who are out of contract, but we won't do it before the summer. We'll take stock at the end of the year.”

In the meantime, Town's scouts will continue looking for potential summer signings: "One of the beauties of the investment is that we're now looking all over the world for players.

”We've brought one in from Argentina, and there are other players in Argentina that we've looked at, but whether we bring someone in from there or from Serbia or Australia or wherever remains to be seen.

"Simon Hunt and Steve McCall have all sorts of trips planned. Steve tends to be more UK-based, while Simon's perennially on an aeroplane.”

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