![]() Friday, 9th Aug 2002 12:31 Town's financial situation continues to be the source of growing concern with the club still yet to comment on the Evening Star story of Wednesday which reported that the Blues are in need of £13 million to make up the shortfall created by relegation from the Premiership. While the report appeared to be in stark contrast to the club's assertions that their financial situation was better than the majority in the Football League, the lack of any response to the original piece and the subsequent article is uncharacteristic and therefore very worrying. More so is the understanding from our sources within the club that the situation is indeed as portrayed and that with the August 31st end of the transfer window approaching Town may well be forced into selling players at fees which are significantly below the level which they would have accepted perhaps as recently as a month ago. TWTD has heard from a usually reliable contact that the club was in informal talks with Fulham shortly after the World Cup and that they told the Londoners they were unwilling to accept an offer of £6 million for Matt Holland, a figure they would certainly accept today. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the club finds itself with a problem. As long ago as the end of last year chairman David Sheepshanks was saying that if the Blues were relegated players would be sold. Town did go down and again the club stated that players would be sold to make up the shortfall. Sadly, with the collapse of the transfer market players have not been sold, and the only one who did depart left for a fee which many felt was below his value, at least his value as it had been when the market was more buoyant. At yesterday's press conference George Burley all but confirmed the situation regarding player values when he said: “At the end of the day you can only sell for what somebody is prepared to pay, and that is the case, just like selling a house. If nobody is prepared to pay what you are looking for then sometimes you've got to look at it.” The club are now stuck with a squad of players on Premiership wages ahead of a season where they will receive a First Division income, hence the shortfall. But in a situation where player values have dropped dramatically and where, for the first time, there are transfer windows which mean that the club will be unable to unload players as the season progresses. All of which means that the next few weeks could see players leave cheaply to be taken off the wage bill and may be amongst the most turbulent in the club's history. However, this leads us to ask the question, what happens if cash does not come in?
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