EXETER CITY are set to undergo more redundancies as financial issues continue.
The League One side have been helped by a loan of £200,000 from the Exeter City Supporters’ Trust, which owns the club.
Last year £400,000 was also lent to ease the burden but still saw chief executive Joe Gorman and chairman Nick Hawker leave their positions over the summer.
General manager Clive Harrison told BBC Radio Devon: “The most important thing to us is that we can pay our staff and our players and that we can meet our obligations to the tax man
“Where we’ve been in the last year or two is that we’ve taken our eye off the ball a little bit, because we’ve had that extra money we haven’t managed that in a way that we should do as Exeter City.
“We were under a period of time there where we were investing to grow.
“I think we set our sights too high there and Gary [Caldwell, men’s manager] agrees now is where we are as a football club, and Abbie [Britton, women’s manager] with the women’s team.
“We all understand as a football club what is achievable.”
Harrison added: “Football’s evolving.
“Exeter City raised their playing budget by £1million in two years while everyone else is doing it by £3million or £3.5million – the highest playing budget in the league is £19million.
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“It’s just not at our level and Gary’s been really good in finding other ways of improving our on-pitch performance that doesn’t cost so much money.”
Exeter currently sit 20th in League One, just three points above bottom-side Port Vale, who have played a game less.
They travel to Bradford City on Saturday and could fall into the relegation zone.
Exeter have only won one of their last five league matches and just two from 10.
Despite getting sell-on clauses from standout sales for Ollie Watkins, Ethan Ampadu, and Jay Stansfield, they are not able to make significant improvements in January without players going the other way.
They have been owned by the Supporters’ Trust since 2003 but Harrison sees the need for change one way or another.
He said: “It feels like we have to evolve now, definitely.
“I think we do have to be realistic.
“We’re realistic in the fact that we can’t guarantee selling a player every year to fill the gap so there’s only so much money you can bring into the business.
“We have to get back to a sustainable level of spend, we hope to do that for early next year so that we don’t have the pressures we have on cash flow.
“It does have to evolve in one way or another, and it’s not ultimately for me to decide that, it’s for me and the board, I think, to put those options in front of the Trust.”
Earlier in November the club saw a fire at stadium St James Park with Harrison estimating around £100k worth of damage.
Hawker said in June: “It has been an honour to guide the club over the last eight years.
“During this time, we have seen the club promoted to League One, built a £3million training facility, and purchased the training ground and properties surrounding St James Park.
“These milestones have been achieved through extraordinary teamwork and the backing of our fantastic supporters.
“I am truly grateful to everyone who has contributed to the success of this remarkable club.”
