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Neil Lennon accepts he may have to play the long game before having any serious money to spend at Wanderers.
More than £100million was coughed up in the Championship during the previous transfer window, a quarter of it from a single club, Derby County.
Reading paid out a cool £2.5million to loan Matej Vydra for a single season, while Bristol City could have taken the total even higher had they landed Dwight Gayle for a reported £9million.
With such money being splashed out around him, Lennon could be forgiven for feeling a little envious, especially considering what has been spent before at Wanderers in the not-too-distant past.
Talk of investment continues, although the club have declined to speak on the record. And though Lennon hopes there will come a time when he can bring some good news on the financial front to the long-suffering Whites fans, he admits it may still be some way off.
“I know there is always something trying to happen in the background,” he told The Bolton News. “I’d like to be in the position to spend at this time next year maybe, these things take quite a bit of time.
“We might get investment in sooner than that, I don’t know.
“I don’t get my hopes up. There are no guarantees of these things happening and it’s nothing to do with me. I don’t run the club, I’m just the custodian concentrating on the football side.
“It’s a case of ‘if there’s money available then please let me know and I’ll try to bring in the best player I can’ but I don’t dwell on it.
“I am not going to use that as an excuse. I am quite enjoying the challenge of not having the money and seeing where we can take this team.”
While much was made of the fact Wanderers did not make a cash signing in the previous window, and that deadline day came and went without a single new arrival, the loan window looks to have spiced things up a little.
Lennon appears to have some cash to invest in a striker on loan, although bringing in such a player is a much more complicated matter than many think.
“There’s no point just bringing in a number just for the sake of it. They have to fit with what we want to do,” he said.
“Money is tight so we have to try and get it right. If we can’t get what we want, we won’t spend the money. There is no point just adding another body.
“I’ve seen some names mentioned that we haven’t fancied at all. But we will just keep working away until we find someone that suits us.”
Some of the Premier League’s bigger clubs, most notably Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City, have now changed the loan landscape by offering financial incentives to clubs to play their loanees.
Often, the fee paid either for the loan or as a percentage of wages will be reduced depending on the number of games the player starts.
Wellington Silva is understood to be on such a deal at Wanderers, and Lennon has also submitted an offer of the same sort to Manchester United for James Wilson.
Even bringing in a loan can be a costly business – as the Whites found out to their cost when they struggled to strike a second deal with Cardiff for Adam Le Fondre this summer.
“A loan fee can be anything with the volume of wages on top of that,” Lennon explained. “You are doing it for one year and he is not your player.
“You could be spending two, three four million quid on a player for a year and then it’s ‘thanks very much.’
“You could be better off, you might not be better off. We are not in a position to that even though I’d like to be in a position. It’s not and cut dried as you think.”
Lennon hopes the funds he does have at his disposal will be enough to land a new striker, although with Max Clayton nearing a return to action he is starting to feel more comfortable about his options in attack.
“Clayton looks good and he’s only two or three weeks away,” he said. “The rest of them keep creating chances and they believe it will come. The only thing I’m unhappy about is that we haven’t been winning games.
“We will endeavour to add another forward to the piece. I think most clubs set aside a little money for this time of the year – for emergencies – and I’m not quite sure how much we have got. But we probably have enough to get one more player in.”
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More than £100million was coughed up in the Championship during the previous transfer window, a quarter of it from a single club, Derby County.
Reading paid out a cool £2.5million to loan Matej Vydra for a single season, while Bristol City could have taken the total even higher had they landed Dwight Gayle for a reported £9million.
With such money being splashed out around him, Lennon could be forgiven for feeling a little envious, especially considering what has been spent before at Wanderers in the not-too-distant past.
Talk of investment continues, although the club have declined to speak on the record. And though Lennon hopes there will come a time when he can bring some good news on the financial front to the long-suffering Whites fans, he admits it may still be some way off.
“I know there is always something trying to happen in the background,” he told The Bolton News. “I’d like to be in the position to spend at this time next year maybe, these things take quite a bit of time.
“We might get investment in sooner than that, I don’t know.
“I don’t get my hopes up. There are no guarantees of these things happening and it’s nothing to do with me. I don’t run the club, I’m just the custodian concentrating on the football side.
“It’s a case of ‘if there’s money available then please let me know and I’ll try to bring in the best player I can’ but I don’t dwell on it.
“I am not going to use that as an excuse. I am quite enjoying the challenge of not having the money and seeing where we can take this team.”
While much was made of the fact Wanderers did not make a cash signing in the previous window, and that deadline day came and went without a single new arrival, the loan window looks to have spiced things up a little.
Lennon appears to have some cash to invest in a striker on loan, although bringing in such a player is a much more complicated matter than many think.
“There’s no point just bringing in a number just for the sake of it. They have to fit with what we want to do,” he said.
“Money is tight so we have to try and get it right. If we can’t get what we want, we won’t spend the money. There is no point just adding another body.
“I’ve seen some names mentioned that we haven’t fancied at all. But we will just keep working away until we find someone that suits us.”
Some of the Premier League’s bigger clubs, most notably Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City, have now changed the loan landscape by offering financial incentives to clubs to play their loanees.
Often, the fee paid either for the loan or as a percentage of wages will be reduced depending on the number of games the player starts.
Wellington Silva is understood to be on such a deal at Wanderers, and Lennon has also submitted an offer of the same sort to Manchester United for James Wilson.
Even bringing in a loan can be a costly business – as the Whites found out to their cost when they struggled to strike a second deal with Cardiff for Adam Le Fondre this summer.
“A loan fee can be anything with the volume of wages on top of that,” Lennon explained. “You are doing it for one year and he is not your player.
“You could be spending two, three four million quid on a player for a year and then it’s ‘thanks very much.’
“You could be better off, you might not be better off. We are not in a position to that even though I’d like to be in a position. It’s not and cut dried as you think.”
Lennon hopes the funds he does have at his disposal will be enough to land a new striker, although with Max Clayton nearing a return to action he is starting to feel more comfortable about his options in attack.
“Clayton looks good and he’s only two or three weeks away,” he said. “The rest of them keep creating chances and they believe it will come. The only thing I’m unhappy about is that we haven’t been winning games.
“We will endeavour to add another forward to the piece. I think most clubs set aside a little money for this time of the year – for emergencies – and I’m not quite sure how much we have got. But we probably have enough to get one more player in.”
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