Norwich City boss Alex Neil does not have £50m in his back pocket to go on a January transfer shopping spree.

Neil's focus is halting a five-game losing run in the Championship against Brentford this weekend, but City will have to wheel and deal next month to bring in new blood.

'I face that scenario in every window. It doesn't change and it always will be the case,' he said. 'I don't have £50m sitting in the bank that I can pluck out and say I will take him, him and him. People think it is really easy. It is nonsense at times. It is more complex than that and I will be honest with you the biggest thing that is different between us and others is that when a club like Bournemouth (got promoted to the Premier League) they had a group who had come up together so their wages, in the main, would have been modest.

'When you are in the Premier League for four out of six seasons we are coming down with guys on Premier League wages so the only people who can afford them if we want to move players on is teams in the Premier League or top, top sides in the Championship. The number of clubs then becomes limited and if they don't want to go or the money isn't right they do not go. It is as simple as that so you are in a catch 22 category.'

Bradley Johnson returned to haunt his old club last weekend after Neil opted to cash in on the Derby midfielder back in 2015.

'It was an opportunity to free up some cash and strengthen the squad. If we didn't do it our transfer pot at that stage would have been severely limited,' said Neil. 'Everybody simplifies it. People came up to me after the AGM and said, 'why don't we just buy this guy and get rid of him?,' and I say to them, 'that is fine but if you are getting paid x, y or z are you just going to walk out of the door?' Of course not.'