Stuart Webber pledged funds are available for Norwich City in the January transfer window – but he is not about to give rivals the inside track by putting a figure on the Canaries’ fighting fund.
Webber was inevitably asked about City’s approach in the upcoming market to the task of Premier League survival on Thursday night, at the club’s annual meeting.
The sporting director, along with head coach Daniel Farke, have engineered a major turnaround on and off the pitch – and there will be no risky outlays.
“There are funds available for January,” he said. “But we make no apologies for saying any money we do spend, we spend wisely. We are not going to sign players for a popularity contest. They have to be genuinely capable of improving this team now and the club in the future.
“What we have to avoid doing is trying so hard to stay in this league that we chase it again and put ourselves in danger.
“I can talk from personal experience of that over the past two years.
“Is money available? Yes, I would be daft to say otherwise. Our job is to give Daniel the best chance to put a winning team on the pitch.
“If we have learned anything it is in this league money helps but you can spend £200m and go backwards quickly in the Premier League. I am not going to put a figure on it because it will be reported and then held against us in negotiations.”
The club’s top brass formally presented the 2018/19 accounts on Thursday evening. The bottom line figure of a loss of £33m, for the year to June 30, came with healthy forecasts for 2019/20 swelled by Premier League income to a projected £16m profit.
City’s commercial income rose to almost £8.5m in the last set of accounts, with a forecast of £15.9m in 2019/20. That is part of a total income forecast to rise sharply from £36.5m to £126m.
Webber admits it is a relief not to have to approach the transfer window needing to offload players out of financial necessity.
“Our plan is not to sell anyone.
“No conversations about selling players have taken place,” he said. “You have to respect every offer that might come in but for the first time in our tenure myself and Daniel are working without a gun to our heads.
“But every player in the world has a price, whether it is Liverpool, Real Madrid, Norwich or Accrington.”
