Gaffer won’t risk club’s money in bid to

KEITH Hill will not risk Rochdale’s financial future by panic buying in the January transfer window.

Hiss said changes to the squad were needed, but they will not be wholesale changes.

“I don’t subscribe to this constant ‘there needs to be change’ all the time,” he said. “There will be necessary changes, no question about that. But we have a certain amount of money, it’s as simple as that. We are never sitting here thinking ‘oh, what if..’ We are constantly planning. We have to try to be one step in front of the opponent all the time, just because there is a monetary imbalance between us and virtually everyone else in League One.

“We have managed to straddle that gap by being in front of everybody, whether that’s in the transfer market, developing players, the way that we play against opponents or the Trojan Horse mentality and the surprise element of it. But sometimes, things just don’t work and if they don’t work then you don’t just give up, you have to try to find an alternative in the group of players that you’ve got, a different way to be successful.”

Dale’s lowly position in League One is a concern – but Hill said it was merely a case of not exceeding expectations for the first time during his spell in charge.

“This is normal, or should be considered normal,” he said. “Finishing in the top ten, two or three points outside the play-offs for the four seasons that I’ve had in League One at this club, is not normal. The players who have stood up to the mark, their ambition levels are still there and we are doing things from a staff point of view better than we’ve ever done. But performances are not reflecting what the players and we are doing, so it’s a