Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne has pledged a war chest for new manager Craig Brown when the transfer window opens. Brown is set to make former Livingston full-back David McNamee his first signing when weather conditions allow him to travel north, with some more deals likely next month.
Milne told Red TV: "There's not bags of money available in Scottish football, that's just the reality.
"But we said to Craig and Archie that we would work with them to find money to enable them to make the moves they want to make in January.
"The moves they make will probably end up being a combination of some new money and maybe moving some players on that they don't feel are part of their long-term plans."
However, the housing magnate insists major spending is not needed to move Aberdeen off the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
"Fans will always say that if there's a chairman who they believe has money to burn, he should be throwing that into the football club," Milne said.
"We have provided a lot of financial support to the football club over the years and we will continue to do that.
"But I've never been a believer that throwing money at problems is the way to deal with them.
"Sometimes it helps but quite often it's responsible for doing damage within the game. The real underlying issues are not addressed.
"Football is all about getting the best out of a squad available, that's a manager's job and that's what Craig and Archie will set out to do."
Aberdeen's costs in the last 18 months have included settlements for two management teams headed by Jimmy Calderwood and Mark McGhee.
But Milne said: "When you don't make a change, there is potentially an even greater cost of not making a change.
"We came to the conclusion it was the right time to make a change.
"If you believe it's the right decision to make you have then got to find funds to make the change.
"In neither case funds have not come out of the football budget, we have found that money from elsewhere."
The club, which is believed to have debts of around £10million, also needs to raise £15million to facilitate a move to a 21,000-seat stadium at Loriston Loch.
"We don't have the option of doing nothing," Milne said. "This stadium has a limited life and every year we stay here it costs us a heap of money. That's just going to continue to increase. At some point we have got to make the move."
