Peter Pannu has stressed that Birmingham City's financial house is in order, following on from suggestions that there would be little money to spend this summer.
Carson Yeung’s right-hand man and St Andrew’s chief insisted that the Hong Kong tycoon would continue to provide funding.
But he explained that, like most clubs, Blues would be not be throwing money about in reckless fashion, regardless of what division they end up in.
Headlines touting ‘Carson won’t splash the cash’ have dismayed Pannu who, over the past few months, has had to try and calm the waters about the state of parent company Birmingham International Holdings Limited and the supposed doubt surrounding Blues' Europa League licence, which they were awarded.
The latest turn of events has come as a result of owner Carson Yeung’s programme notes for the Fulham game.
“I think if people read carefully Carson’s words and use basic common sense then they will understand,” said the acting chairman.
“He is not saying he won’t spend, he is saying the spending has to be sensible.
“The infrastructure and the squad will be improved, and he made it clear he is not stalling his financial support.
“But just because we qualified for Europe and the possibility of extra games it doesn’t then mean that we have to be throwing around crazy money like £50 million or something.
“There is no point in elevating the expectations of anybody in an unrealistic fashion.
“Carson is being very open and astute in setting out the financial direction of the club and for that I salute him.
“It is incorrect, it is scare mongering, for anybody to interpret his words to suggest there are problems.”
Relegation from the Premier League would obviously impact seriously on Blues' revenue streams. How that would affect the spending power remains to be seen, and Pannu said it was ‘too early’ to discuss the issue ahead of Blues' crunch game at Spurs on Sunday.
He added: “It is a challenging task facing us all, myself and the staff at St Andrew’s, as Carson says.
“But football is changing and when the UEFA [financial fair play] directives bite, all clubs will have to follow the rules.
“Carson remains totally committed to the club and will continue to provide the financial backing, as he always has done.”
Alex McLeish raised the issue of the need to assemble a squad with enough quality and depth to cope with the extra burden of Blues' Europa League adventure next season.
