A NEW contract won’t mean loosened purse strings for Tranmere manager Les Parry next season.

Parry has been told that the budget for players and staff at Prenton Park will be the same for the 2011/12 campaign as for the one that finished last weekend.

That will leave Rovers among the clubs with the most modest spending resources in League One – although Parry expects a number of higher-spending rivals to be cutting back on expenditure next term.

Rovers punched above their financial weight in finishing nine points clear of the relegation places in 2010/11, an achievement which helped to persuade chairman Peter Johnson to give the long serving physiotherapist turned manager a third campaign in charge of team affairs.

Parry said: “Everything is status quo as far as the budgets are concerned. That goes for the players’ budget and the staff budget.

“We would all like to have more money available to see what we could do with it but I knew what the financial situation is when I took the job.”

Parry added: “Last season one of the directors stood up at our AGM and said that if you put all of the clubs in Leagues One and Two together, Tranmere would be in the bottom quarter of the 48 teams in terms of our budget for players. That gives you an idea of where we are.

“By staying the same it sounds as if we are going to be in a similar position but there are whispers around that a lot of clubs of our size are going to be cutting the budget quite dramatically this summer. So other clubs will be moving towards us, which will be positive.”