Scunthorpe Utd: Knill will spend Raynes cash on striker
MANAGER Alan Knill says Scunthorpe United will plough the money received from the sale of Michael Raynes back into strengthening his squad.
The 23-year-old centre-back's 18-month stint at Glanford Park surprisingly came to an end on the eve of the new campaign when he joined League Two side Rotherham United for an undisclosed fee on Friday.
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Iron boss Alan Knill
It came just days after Andy Hughes' exit to Charlton, appearing to leave the Iron short of cover at the back should they pick up even just a couple of injuries.
But fans concerned about a fire sale need not worry according to the United manager, who is trying to free up room to give his side more attacking options, with the search for a new striker continuing.
"Unfortunately, we had to have outgoings," Knill told the Telegraph, after watching his side impress in their 1-1 opening day draw at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.
"It's no sleight on the players, it's just that when you come down with a budget like we had there has to be outgoings.
"Probably the other clubs that came down would have been okay with our budget, but at Scunthorpe it was too big.
"The two lads that have gone (Hughes and Raynes), we'll try to use their wages to bring in what we think is more quality."
Knill denied Raynes' departure leaves United short of centre-back options.
He has been linked with loan moves for Celtic's Josh Thompson and Leeds rookie Tom Lees, but insists he is 'happy' with the three senior centre-halves he has at his disposal – Michael Nelson, Paul Reid and Niall Canavan.
It will also give first year pro Ashley Palmer first-team exposure.
"Unfortunately I haven't had much time to work with Raynesy and Rotherham came in with an offer that was adequate," added Knill.
"The chances are Reid and Nelson are going to start for us, so I didn't want Michael to have another season out of the team.
"He needs to play at his age so we all decided it would be best for him to go to Rotherham.
"And also, we've got a young centre-half, Ash Palmer, a first year pro, who I think is going to be a really good player. Now we've got three centre-halves, it doesn't stop him from coming through.
"But most importantly, it gives us some more money to spend to strengthen the squad."
Comments
by PStoff
Monday, August 08 2011, 9:41AM
“We ploughed nothing of any other sales into new players - spent nothing in the summer apart from Ryan (still not known but should not be much for a League Two player) and we have chopped out many of the high wage earners.
We've chased ghosts all summer and as such we are powder puff up front still as was highlighted on Saturday.
We spent nothing when we sold Woolford and Forte in January - we just got the Connor Sammon red herring. We spent nothing of the Hooper money the summer before, we just offloaded players that we needed to stay up.
Don't believe any of this spin from the club. As many people are realising ambition does not form part of the clubs vocabulary.”