WITH the ITV Digital case due to go to court tomorrow Clarets boss Stan Ternent admitted he is bracing himself for the worst as he said: "All the players at this club are for sale at the moment."

It is not the first time he has admitted he may be forced but with just over two weeks until the start of the season it is a stark assessment of the situation that has already seen him let six players go this summer.

"I will have to sell to balance things up because it is not just a case of getting a fee for a player it is the savings of the wages that you can make," he said. "I definitely don't want to sell and I will not be giving players away for nothing but it is the fact of life at the moment.

"The loss of money has affected us very badly because we have budgeted for a two year period and with the sort of shortfall we have got (around £4million) the easiest way to raise funds is sell players.

"The prospect of doing that is very frustrating to me, the chairman, the board and, of course, the fans but the most important thing is Burnley Football Club.

"We have done well over the last two years and in an ideal world we would be running at a profit. We could really have cracked on if the funds we were expecting were forthcoming.

"But we don't ever want to go back to the days of the Orient game and we don't want to be in a position like Bradford City. The most important thing is to budget the books as best we can."

Ternent is not the only manager in this situation at the moment and even those coming down from the Premiership with parachute payments are having to watch their budgets.

"Ipswich have sold Titus Bramble to Newcastle and Leicester are looking to let players leave," he explained. "If they can get rid of Matt Elliott, Dennis Wise and Tim Flowers than could save them £70,000 a week in wages. That is almost £4million a year."

It is not a situation unique to the Clarets.

Nicky Law, manager of first division rivals Bradford City, claims his club will go out of existence if Italian player Benito Carbone refuses to a compromise over his contract.

The Italian is believed to be owed between £3-4million for the remainder of his Valley Parade contract.

But Law said that if a compromise could not be reached the player faced getting nothing if the club, currently in administration, went out of business.

"He has said 'I am owed the money, I am due it and I want it'," said Law.

"If he continues to do that there will be no Bradford City. Then he gets a cut of nothing. Without the Carbone deal being sorted out we will not exist."

The Clarets have a number of players who would be likely to attract interest from clubs in the top flight with money to spend. Glen Little has been linked with both Sunderland and Aston Villa while Arthur Gnohere's first season of rich promise has certainly made him a man to watch.

That said, Ternent admitted: "Even if you decide you are going to sell players it is not easy, it is a very restricted market at the moment. Clubs are going to find it difficult to pay players the wages they want.

"But whichever way up things fall I will just have to work around it. I know I will have a smaller squad, one that will be hit by injuries and suspensions but that is just the way it is."

The squad he has got trained again in the Isle of Man this morning ahead of tomorrow night's game in the Steam packet Football Festival when they will take on the hosts who lost 2-1 to Rochdale last night in the final group game.