Money's too tight to mention at Drogheda United but Kevin Doherty insists his team can still be good value as they scrap for survival.
While many of their Premier Division rivals splashed the cash over the winter, Drogs went the other way and actually reduced their budget.
Club chiefs have made no secret of the need to secure external investment if the club is to survive in the top flight for much longer.
But while talks took place with interested parties here and abroad, no deals have materialised with the clock ticking down to Friday’s opener with Shelbourne.
Doherty has seen captain Dane Massey leave for Bray Wanderers, while Bohemians snapped up Dean Williams and Andrew Quinn joined Shelbourne.
Chris Lyons has gone back to Bray while Darragh Nugent’s loan spell from Shamrock Rovers is up.
So Doherty has had to box clever with his recruitment and went back to Lincoln City for two more loan signings in the shape of Elicha Ahui and Freddie Draper.
Sean Brennan is another new face after joining from UCD while Ben Curtis and Michael Leddy are on loan from St Pat’s and Shamrock Rovers respectively.
Doherty said: "As usual, there’s been a lot of change with new players and we lost players that I wanted to keep.
“The budget is down from last year, which was the lowest in the league bar UCD which is a different model.
“I’d have liked it to have been more to be able to compete, but it is what it is.
“The club is where it is with investment talks with different groups. It's too late for this year and we just have to make the most of it.”
Doherty continued: "People are probably sick of me talking about budgets but it's only because it's so relevant because we’re so far behind other clubs.
“It's down from last year but it's not miles and miles down. Hopefully it's only in the short-term and things will change at some stage.
“We were able to do alright last year and we'll try to do the same again. You have to get on with it and I’ve put together what I think is a competitive squad.”
Drogheda finished third from bottom last year, but had a comfortable 12-point cushion over UCD who contested - and won - the promotion-relegation playoff with Waterford.
Doherty’s selling point is that Drogheda will give young players a chance at regular top flight football - especially those operating in a part-time environment.
But therein lies another issue:
“More and more, there are no part-time players,” explained Doherty.
“Lads want to be full-time footballers and rightly so. There's a reason why most leagues in Europe are full-time.
"Conor Hoey (former chairman) said himself in an interview that if we stay part-time that the inevitable will happen but we're going to fight against it.
"I've no doubt ourselves and UCD will be favourites to go down and I'm sure Andy Myler and myself will - like last year - try to use that as motivation.
“It's going to be tough, we're up against clubs with much bigger resources and outside investment.
“But we did it last year and we'll try to do it again and, with the players we have, I think we'll have a chance.”
