Sheffield United: Second season wage cuts means boss knows his budget says CEO
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Steve Bettis, the United chief executive, also claimed any money raised from player sales following the club’s failure to regain Premier League status last season, will be handed back to the 44-year-old for use in the transfer market.
Explaining why Bramall Lane’s board of directors have refused to provide Heckingbottom with an exact total, handing him a ballpark figure instead, Bettis said: "We sit down within reason and say the budget's ‘X’ but you never know what's going to happen and if we will get an offer for a player which is too good to turn down and that changes things because you've got to buy a new player for that position and maybe there's some extra money then for other positions.
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Hide Ad"It's always a moving target and something you just have to react to as things go forward but at the moment Paul's clear on where we're at in terms of a budget and the positions he's highlighted and what we're doing with them.”
The wage drop risk
As The Star reported earlier this week, the salaries of United’s team have been reduced again following their defeat by Nottingham Forest in the Championship play-off semi-finals, having already been cut when they were demoted from the top-flight last year.
Some will view this as a risky policy, given that it provides better-minted rivals with an advantage should they attempt to lure some of Heckingbottom’s higher profile names away before the window closes.
But Bettis argued, coupled with the departure of loanees such as Morgan Gibbs-White and