Julian Winter says Swansea City's owners are open to fresh investment but stressed they have no intention of selling the club.
The Swans are no longer in receipt of parachute payments and are in their fifth consecutive season in the Championship following relegation from the Premier League in 2018. Two years ago, they received a cash boost in the form of a loan from American Jake Silverstein - with that due to be converted into equity at some stage in the future.
And chief executive Winter has reiterated that the Swans will continue to be a trading club as they bid to remain financially stable.
“These guys are long-term sports investors. There’s never any discussion around sale – that is never part of any discussion we have," said Winter at a fans' forum.
“They are very open about wanting to work with new investment partners, so if a partner came in as a minority partner they would be open to that – as Jake did when he came in two years ago with the loan note which will get converted into equity at some point.
“They are not bought into the cycle of what the Championship has become. The Championship has become this monstrous thing where clubs spend ridiculous amounts of money in the hope of getting promoted. You've got this imbalance in the Championship that no-one can really solve.
“Can I tell you - are they going to throw X millions in in the future? Well there will have to be some funding, but I am not sure what level that will rest at. We will always be a trading club, I don’t think we’ve ever been shy about that.”
Nottingham Forest spent vast sums as they returned to the top-flight for the first time in 23 years in the summer. Former Swansea boss Steve Cooper led the City Ground outfit from the second tier relegation zone to the play-offs, with Forest defeating Winter's former club Huddersfield Town in the final at Wembley in May.
They subsequently underwent one of the biggest squad turnovers ever seen in a single transfer window thanks largely to the money they earned from being promoted while also being backed by wealthy owner Evangelos Marinakis.
But Winter described Forest's model as "bonkers", adding that Swansea would never spend similar levels if they were to return to the Premier League.
"I personally think that's absolutely bonkers," he said, when asked if Swansea would follow a similar path to that of Nottingham Forest this year in the event of promotion. "The transition from the Championship to the Premier League is not an easy one.
"A club like Forest, they did have a lot of loan players in, but ending up signing 22 players and spending around £140m, I'm genuinely astounded by it.
"It's a bit risk to take. In all of what we would do, we would obviously invest in the team, but the quantum isn't £150m, it really isn't. I think we are in reasonable shape.
“We can’t always point towards ownership all the time to solve every problem that we might perceive is around the corner. That’s down to us."
And regarding Swansea's current situation in the Championship, Winter confirmed the club still had a small amount of debt on the books. He said: “I would say our wage budget is probably in the range of bottom third in the Championship. Being honest, that’s about where we are.
“Some of the ones at the top of the division are the ones that have been relegated and are in first year parachute [payments] or second year parachute [payments].
“We are second year out of parachute so this is the second season that we don’t have any Premier League parachute money. That means we have had to cut our cloth over time.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out – you go from £40m-odd parachute to £30m-odd parachute down to £15m parachute and then down to EFL distributions, which are very different.
“We will be bottom third. We understand the competition. In real terms I think we are in good shape. We do have some debt but it’s not significant.
“We will have to trade and we will have to have shareholder contribution for us to compete in this division.”
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