Hull City chairman Adam Pearson says he is already planning talks with potential new investors.
Pearson has met with manager Phil Brown to discuss which players can be sacrificed but is also in the hunt for outside investment to ease financial headaches.
That avenue could unlock money for transfers but Pearson is not budgeting for such a quick deal.
"My brief is to get the right investors at the right shareholding, and at the right time," Pearson told the Hull Daily Mail.
"That will be a process that starts straight away but could take anything up to a year. In the mean time, it's my job to put a business plan in place to make sure this club goes from strength to strength without having those investors.
"Obviously, the investors would be the icing on the cake and enable us to go out and buy players in either the January or the summer period."