Newcastle United managing director Derek Llambias has admitted that the club will seek to cut spending during the next few seasons.
According to Llambias there are already eleven top-class players in the side and he suggests that the club will not be held to ransom in term of wages and transfer fees.
Alan Pardew is currently experiencing something of a defensive crisis with first choice centre-backs Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini both out through injury but Llambias still believes that the squad is good enough to cope with a depleted defence.
The club were close to bringing in French left-back Mathieu Debuchy and FC Twente centre-back Douglas in the summer but both deals fell through with Newcastle unwilling to pay the over-inflated asking fees.
“We’ve made it quite clear to everyone. We have 11 positions that are grade A players or Purples, as we call them,” he is quoted as saying to Sky Sports.
“Then, under them, we have the players who come in under them to take the positions so the squad gets bigger.
“Eventually we’ll have 33 players who will be pushing everyone. Where we are we have, in effect, 11 Purples if you count (Vurnon) Anita. He can play midfield, right-back, left-back. They are there. Centre-backs you have Colo and Steven Taylor, who are fantastic centre-backs.
“To bring in another centre-back then you have James Perch who is doing a fantastic job, (Mike) Williamson, who is doing a fantastic job. You can’t have two purples per position because the club can’t afford it. You have to be realistic.”