Preston North End boss Alan Irvine says he will only spend if it improves the squad following another weekend of transfer speculation.
The Lilywhites were linked with a move for Cardiff's Paul Parry on Friday, 24 hours after Irvine had also been linked with an audacious swoop for Didi Hamann. With both Paul McKenna and Simon Whaley departed over the summer the Preston boss admits that midfielders are top of his list, but that he won't spend just for the sake of it.
"It's another one that has been thrown up," the Preston boss said when asked if he was interested in a move for Welsh international Parry.
"The situation with Paul Parry is that he might be available and we will see what happens. We need to bring in some midfield players, there's no question about that, we've got five midfield players for four positions and we can't go into the season like that.
"We are looking at bringing in players across the middle of the park, everyone knows that we have lost Simon and we have lost Paul so you are looking to replace them really. We need to do something, there's no question about that.
"We are linked with a number of players, we were linked with Didi Hamann and that was quite simply a phonecall from an agent. We are working away trying to see what we can do, it has to be within our means, we have got big financial constraints so we are looking at any players who we think will make us better but within our budget.
"I'm working hard on it and the Chairman is working hard on it. If we can do anything with anybody then great but I am not going to bring anybody here who wont make us better or strengthen our squad because that is just a waste of money."
North End, as ever, are having to spend within their means but the Preston boss admitted that his job is not made any easier by the Club's big spending Championship rivals. But that PNE boss also pointed out that the situation is no different to last season when Irvine took the Lilywhites to the Play-Offs.
"I think everybody just has to look and see that the whole world is seeing the effects of this recession," said the Preston boss after the 2-1 win over Stoke City.
"It's not just football and in football terms it's not just Preston, there are many clubs who are finding money extremely tight, unfortunately for us there also clubs in our division who have loads of money and that makes my job a bit harder, it's not a level playing field.
"It wasn't a level playing field last year either and we managed to get a good season under our belt so we are hoping that by working very hard and in a clever way that we can achieve a really good position in the league."
