Rudy Gestede has defended Blackburn Rovers' decision not to reinvest all the money generated from the sale of Sam Szmodics this summer.
Rovers' top-scorer was sold to Ipswich Town for an initial fee of £9million, with further add-ons hopefully taking that to eight figures. However, Rovers only spent around £2m total, despite also moving on Sam Gallagher, Leopold Wahlstedt and Semir Telalovic for fees too.
Considering Adam Wharton was also moved on for big money in January, Rovers fans have questioned why more money has not been reinvested into the squad.
The club have continually insisted that Venky's ongoing court case in India has not prevented them from funding the club, though they must match every £ sent to Rovers with a personal guarantee.
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Speaking on a wide range of topics on The Chris Gill Podcast, Gestede tried to offer some insight into the budgeting process in the summer.
"You sit down with the board and we know what we can spend in terms of salary, in terms of transfer fees," he explained.
"It's then up to us to balance the money the right way with players we think should earn more because of the quality, the age. The value that it can bring. There are different parameters we take on board to make a decision.
"Let's say we don't talk about Sam Szmodics specifically but say a player gets sold for £20m. Usually, you don't get the cash straight away, it's split over a few years.
"This money, you have a percentage going to the club that you bought the players from. Then you have some costs at the club that you want to cover.
"At the end of the day, the money you receive, you can't spend the full amount on another player because you don't receive it. We know what we can spend at the beginning of the season, we are not the richest club in the world.
"We're not the richest club in the Championship. We have to try and spend the money in the most intelligent way."
Gestede then defended Venky's at criticism from some supporters for a lack of financial backing. He claimed that there was, at times, a lack of gratitude, though admitted it is up to club officials to communicate more clearly to the fans.
"We have big support from our owners, who have supported the club since they joined us," he continued.
"Sometimes, the fans don't realise that but they support us every year, putting money into the club, big amount of money to pay salaries, transfer fees and operational costs.
"We should be more grateful sometimes for the owners who back us up. But I do understand fans have expectations and they don't know what happens behind closed doors.
"It's up to us to communicate. You can't do that on everything but you can give some news on where money has gone, why we're spending money in other places. You can't always go deep in the details but we have to communicate in the right way for them to understand."
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