Coventry City manager Chris Coleman and chairman Ray Ranson are to have an informal lunch together today to discuss the budget for next years Championship campaign.
Coleman is keen to learn if he is to have a transfer fund and if so, how much will be made available to him. He knows that his team is lacking in some departments and is keen to strengthen where the team is weak, but to do so, he will need funds if he is to be able to mount a challenge to claim a place in the top ten or even top six by this time next year.
Coleman said to the CT, "I am speaking to him today when we will see what's what" and when asked if he is hopeful, he replied, "Yes I am, I think you have got to be. Of course we understand the current financial state of everyone, but we always said this would be an important transfer window."
"The long-term future of the club is always the most important but it is a case of saying, 'what have we got' because I know what we want to do and what we need. It is now a question of whether we can go and get it. It will be interesting to see and I am sure we'll have a good chat over a bit of dinner like we always do when we meet and we will see where we go from there."I will show him what we need and we will have a chat on the back of that."
Ranson and Coleman have worked closely together and both understand the problems of the other. Ranson knows he need to provide a transfer kitty, but Coleman knows it will not be a big pot and that if funds are made available, they will have to be spent wisely.
Coleman explained, "I think it helps that he is an ex player and never really gets involved, in fairness to him, but I think it helps that when I say we need this and this is why, he understands where I am coming from. No disrespect to other chairman who haven't played the game, but it helps."
Coleman does understand the need for prudence and it fits neatly with his desire to bring in younger payers to the squad, rather than older, more experienced, but possibly nearing the end of their career. He said, "Sometimes you have to speculate a bit and I am not talking about spending £2-3 million on a 32-year-old.
"I just think it is evident that we need more pace and power throughout the team, but sometimes to get that you have got to invest a bit of money so that's what I am saying. Is there any available and can I use it because that's what the team needs. I sound like a broken record but it is an important window for us."
With many Sky Blues fans muttering about not renewing their season tickets unless there is a substantial improvement, the club will be deprived of funds they desperately need to strengthen the squad, so they find themselves embroiled in a paradox that they need to spend money to attract the fans back to the fold, but the fans won't return until the team has been strengthened and performing well.
Coleman is fully aware that he need to assemble a winning team to get the fans back into The Ricoh.
"I know we do a lot of different things to entice the crowd to come to the games but the crowd will come, 100 per cent, when the team is successful," he said."For the team to be successful, sometimes you have got to take a little bit of a step. I am not talking about gambling, because I don't believe in doing that, but I am talking about investing in the right areas."
"We have played some good teams recently who are built better than us, stronger and quicker, so we are always at our maximum trying to get something. Coleman reflected. He then added, "When we won five out of six we were playing teams around and below us, but Cardiff onwards; Leicester, West Brom, Reading, Sheffield United, we have not beaten any of them."
"We beat Forest on the off chance and Sheffield United at home earlier in the season, but when you are playing against teams like that going for the top six and playing them week in, week out, which is what we have had to deal with, we have suffered."
"To be in the top ten and knocking on the door of the top six we know who we are competing against and what we need to do in terms of the dynamics of the team, but to get there we may have to invest a bit of money. I don't want to be in the same situation we were last year when we lost Danny Fox and Scott Dann, but it was no-one's fault that we couldn't reinvest the money."
"We went on to have a good start with the first dozen games but we need to be a bit more pro-active and if we hit the ground running with the boys we have got and a few new faces in the right areas then I think we could do well next season."