IAN THOMAS-MOORE expects to find Tranmere are far from alone when they step into the new season this weekend with a slimmed down squad.

Rovers are preparing for Saturday’s opening League One fixture at Yeovil with just 16 permanently signed professionals on the books – seven of them teenagers – supported by a few loan recruits.

Thomas-Moore, at 32 one of the more experienced and well travelled players at Prenton Park, admits he can’t recall being part of dressing room that is quite so thin on numbers.

He said: “There are fewer of us this season – but I think you are going to find the same sort of thing is true at more than half of the clubs in this division.

“A lot of clubs are in the same boat as us because there is now so little money around the game at this level.

“Clubs are having to cut back on squad numbers and rely on loan players and home-produced youngsters because that’s the nature of the business at the moment. I think it’s going to be the case for the next few years.”

Moore added: “Through most of my career, clubs at this level were carrying around 25 and 26 professionals who were all capable of playing in the first-team. But these days clubs can’t afford to carry those numbers any more.

“They don’t generate the money to pay them. And very few clubs outside the top two divisions can afford to sign players who cost a transfer fee.”

Thomas-Moore’s father, Ronnie Moore, earned widespread credit in the game for taking Tranmere to within one place of the League One play-offs last season with an inexpensively assembled squad of 20 players.

John Barnes, his successor, is working with fewer numbers still, after accepting a reduced budget when taking on the job at Prenton Park in June.

Ronnie Moore campaigned vigorously last season for Barclays Premier League and Coca-Cola Championship clubs to help the smaller clubs in the lower divisions by paying the wages of players sent out on loan.

Such arrangements are becoming more commonplace, and not before time, Thomas-Moore says.

He added: “After all, the top clubs are benefiting from their young players gaining first-team experience when they go out on loan in the lower divisions. They become better players.”

Even so, Thomas Moore believes the time has arrived for football’s ruling bodies to address the widening wealth gap between the clubs in the top two divisions of those in Leagues One and Two.

Thomas-Moore said: “Almost all the money that is pumped into the game from TV, advertising and sponsorship seems to go into the Premiership. The Championship sweep up most of what is left.

“That seems strange in my book because the game is not looking after its own grassroots.

“The clubs in Leagues One and Two need more of that money to trickle down.

“We are the clubs bringing the players through. I would like to see something sorted out sooner rather than later because it is becoming difficult for clubs in the lower divisions just to survive.”

The former Nottingham Forest, Stockport, Burnley, Leeds United and Hartlepool striker is in his second spell with Tranmere and, until a name change this summer, was known simply as Ian Moore.

However, Ian married Victoria Thomas, his partner of the last 13 years in May.

Rather than change the surnames of their three children, Olivia, Scarlet and Sebastian, Ian changed his own name to Thomas-Moore.

Ian explained: “To save changing all the kids passports and birth certificates I decided just to change my own name, which is a lot simpler.”