THE blaze of national publicity about Dale Jennings transfer to Bayern Munich is doing Tranmere no favours as manager Les Parry seeks to bring a new striker into Prenton Park.

Rival clubs reckon Rovers must have cash to splash from the Jennings deal – and may be pricing potential targets accordingly.

Rovers’ track record in financial prudence – they have not paid a transfer fee for a player in several years – has been put to one side as the headline figure of £1.8million tagged to Jennings’ move to Germany this week changes some perceptions.

Tranmere will be collecting a down payment of just £600,000 for the 18-year-old prospect, with the rest dependent upon Jennings signing professional German forms, playing in Bayern’s first-team and ultimately playing for England.

And most, if not all of that money is liable to be earmarked to cover operating losses and debts to the banks rather than being ploughed straight back into the budget for players.

Parry said: “We are finding that other clubs think we must have money to spend. But that isn’t the case really. The money we have taken in for Dale Jennings is needed just to keep operating. It’s money that we plan to use to fill a hole.

“We’ve enquired about the striker from a club in our division and the money they are talking about is way above what I think the chairman may be prepared to give us.

“The trouble with transfer fees is that people look at the headline figure. It’s no secret that the down payment from Bayern is around £600,000 and the rest comes in as Dale signs and plays.”

Parry draws a parallel with Steve Simonsen, whose move from Tranmere to Everton in 1998, quoted as being worth £3m, would have made him the most expensive goalkeeper in the country.

But the £3m figure was based on Simonsen becoming established as Everton’s number one goalkeeper and playing international football. Ultimately less than £1m changed hands between the Merseyside clubs.

Parry said: “If Dale hits all the right buttons for Bayern over the next couple of years we might get close to £2m. But he has got to get an awful lot of buttons, including playing for his country, and that’s not as simple as it sounds.”