WITH County languishing one place off the bottom of League One, the man who holds the purse strings at Edgeley Park has come out fighting in an exclusive interview with the Stockport Express.

Cheshire Sport chief executive Niels de Vos has sought to 'set the record straight' following criticism from some disgruntled Stockport County fans. Accusations have clearly hurt de Vos, who now wants to put the facts into the public arena.

He presents a case that indicates far from depriving County of financial support, owner Brian Kennedy has backed the football side of the business totally.

Cheshire Sport, of course, is the company which, since the start of last season, has owned and operated County alongside Zurich Premiership rugby side Sale Sharks RUFC. The two clubs share the Edgeley Park stadium, but over recent weeks some County fans have hit out at what they believe to be a lack of support for Sammy McIlroy's team and favouritsm towards the rugby side.

De Vos said: "At the moment fans are upset because we are not delivering the results on the field that we would all wish for. The suggestion that myself and Brian do not care is simply nonsense - we sit and watch defeats as well, and it hurts us as much as anyone else.

"The emotion of defeat is draining, especially since we have invested for success in the face of massive operating losses. However, as owners of the club the financial implications of defeat are even bigger than the emotional cost.

"We have a very difficult balancing act because while we want success today, we are also 100 per cent committed to ensuring the club's long term future by trying to balance the books. My job as CEO is to ensure we have a viable football club here for years to come as it is very dangerous to be reliant upon one man's personal wealth.

"God forbid anything should happen to Brian, we must ensure that County are in a position to be self supporting.

"We have never hidden this fact, and indeed were roundly applauded for this when we took over, yet still take abuse for not investing heavily enough in the team. We understand the temptations but refuse to mortgage the future of the club."

De Vos added: "Let me just illustrate the problem with a few facts. First up, the wage bill at County. It is inappropriate to reveal individual salaries, but I'm sure more than a few supporters will be surprised to learn that the basic wage budget for County is '1.45m - more than twice the amount generated in gate revenues (just '700,000).

"If we take into account win/draw bonuses, a season finish in mid-table will take that wage bill to '2m, comparable to the very biggest clubs in our division. And, for absolute clarity, that cost of squad assumes the removal of those players that have gone during the course of the season to date.

"Those who took longer to get out, like Aaron Lescott, have cost the club another '40,000 in wage costs that were not budgeted for as he should have gone at the end of last season but preferred to simply pick up his wages from County.

"To put our challenge into context, the chairman of Sheffield Wednesday was only last week detailing how he needs gates of 20,000 to support a squad cost of '2m and we are trying to do the same on gates of 5,000.

"If we really didn't care about County do you think we would have increased the wage bills from last year, and fought so desperately against relegation with new signings, new management and loan players last season - of course not."

Meanwhile, talk of a higher cash budget for Sale Sharks have also riled de Vos, a suggestion which he dismissed outright. He added: "Sale Sharks absolutely do not receive a higher proportion of investment than County. There's a salary cap in rugby of '1.9m, and this has to fund a squad of 34 players - average earnings are therefore very much on a par with the football, despite the fact that Sharks generate far more revenue, albeit helped massively by recieving much larger revenues from the centre."

De Vos has also responded to suggestions that CS have taken football decisions without the support of manager Sammy McIlroy.

"We've given him everything that he's asked for to build a team that we all genuinely feel could compete in this division and beyond," he said.

"We initially sat down with Sammy when we secured our second division status in May and said 'tell us the players that you need'.

"It was an open book, there haven't been any players that we said 'no, we can't afford it'.

"There were a couple of players that Sammy decided he decided he didn't want because it was too much (an example being goalkeeper Bo Myhill), but these players never made it to the boardroom table.

"Every player Sammy wanted, Brian agreed to fund - including the late addition of Derek Geary once the budget and squad had been agreed. This was now a squad Sammy felt was capable of giving it a go.

"Well that squad now has to deliver - there is no more money in the pot to add to a squad which is already more in number and wages than the vast majority of League One clubs - and possibly as much as twice what the likes of Port Vale and Luton are spending for the teams that are currently in the top six of the division.

"Sammy has a broad philosophy that all players should be on roughly the same, he feels that's much better for team spirit and so on.

"Some fans have asked about the Rob Clare situation, suggesting that he was let go cheaply. Well no he wasn't, his name was circulated in May to every single club in the Football League and there simply wasn't any interest.

"People weren't prepared to pay his wages and a fee on top, while Sammy's view was that Rob wasn't going to be one of his first choice centre-halves when he was clearly on a first choice salary - and beyond. It just wasn't realistic to have someone like that on the bench and Sammy was the one who identified this.

"We have absolutely backed the manager, we haven't sold a single player without his knowledge.

"Of course Sammy would have wanted to keep Aaron Wilbraham and Rob Clare, any manager wants to keep good players, but equally he knows we cannot afford to keep these players. It's a hard decision but it has to be one in, one out.

"At the beginning of the season we went through the squad and said 'if we sign these new players (the likes of Warren Feeney, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson and Derek Geary), can these players go out on loan, can these players be sold, which players should we be looking to renew contracts', and every single decision came with the full agreement of Sammy and Mark Lillis.

"Brian and I are not the football decision makers, but we desperately want success. It is going to be difficult to break even without increasing County's gates, previous administrations also acknowledged that.

"But we've gone over and above what we were going to do, and probably gone beyond what our over-riding objection was - to get County to break even. We are trying to build a team not just for this season, but for the season after that and ones after that. But ultimately the players have to perform, once a player is here on a contract they have to be prepared to put their bodies on the line week in, week out, and strain every muscle in their bodies in an effort to win games.

"We are in a little bit of a trough at present, but what we need is support not criticism.

"We're happy to take criticism when it's fair and appropriate, but when people know the figures I'm talking about, then they will hopefully realise that we've been more than fair in giving Sammy the support he needs."

Finally, de Vos gave a brief insight as to what was to be discussed at an Edgeley Park board meeting yesterday (Tuesday).

"The only thing that will be discussed with Sammy is what we can do to help him, if he needs it, to ensure that we turn our season around," said de Vos.

"We know he's under enormous pressure to deliver results, and we will all work with him to get through this, but it will not be by adding further to the squad.

"We won't try and buy our way out of trouble because going that way spells disaster for the club in the long run."

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