SAM Allardyce is bidding to wheel and deal his way into the Premiership.

Wanderers will not have the benefit of the big cheque book to back their promotion bid but they have shown so far that what they are lacking in cash they are more than making up for in character and commitment.

The need to bring expenditure into line with income to ease Burnden Leisure's huge debt - £24 million at the end of the last financial year - rules out any hope of Allardyce splashing the cash.

So he must find other ways of keeping his squad up to strength - as with the loan signing of Colin Hendry this week.

While his current pool of players continue to produce the goods there is no urgent need for an injection of new blood. The current form and results are buying the manager time but he remains mindful of the need to bolster his squad to increase the club's chances of making it to the Premiership promised land.

Explaining the kind of team strengthening policy he must adopt in the current circumstances, he said: "The most important thing first of all is to overcome our injury situation.

"We could do only having to deal with two injuries and not six or seven as we have been doing.

"The injuries have really tested the squad and it has come through with flying colours.

"We have used 23 players this season, that's the full squad and the performances have got better and better.

"We have played everybody in the division and there is only Fulham who are a long way ahead of us.

"Strengthening the squad is what every team has to do and if it has to be on a short term basis because we have not got a lot of money at the moment then that is what I have to focus on.

"There are players at other clubs who we research and then there are players in Europe who want to prove themselves in England. If we have to use ourselves as a stepping stone for them that's what we have to do."

While covering the non-league scene to a degree, Allardyce said it is not a major market for him because it can cost a fortune to scout comprehensively and the chance of finding players is very small.

One key area identified by Allardyce is in bringing on the youngsters at the Reebok. Resources are being poured into the youth set-up including the prospect of a new indoor sports facility and the manager identifies the successful youth policy at Manchester United as the yardstick.

"There is a club not too far away who we are supposed to dislike who are at the forefront of youth development," he said. "When United played PSV Eindhoven 15 players out of the 25 listed in the progreamme were juniors with United and I think that is the way to go."

After years of failing to tap into the youth development market Wanderers are reaping the benefit of bringing on their own youngsters under Allardyce.

"Dean Holden would have been a big plus for us if he hadn't been injured and Kevin Nolan has gone from the youth team to England under-18s this season," he said.

"Young players often come through in ones and twos but what a manager wants to see is them coming through in groups of three and four at once."

In the shorter term chairman Phil Gartside has confirmed the board would always retain the flexibility to find resources if the need was great enough.