Stoke City chairman Peter Coates insists that Stoke City cannot afford to repeat the major spending of last summer, unless they sell players first.
On the final day of the 2011 summer transfer window Stoke spent around £20 million to bring Cameron Jerome, Peter Crouch and Wilson Palacios to the Britannia Stadium.
Coates, though, cannot see a repeat performance occurring this summer, saying: "Are we going to spend like we did last year? We can't afford to, and neither can any other club our size. You can only have a squad of a certain size, otherwise they are all standing on the sidelines.
"What's clever about that? So you only want a squad of a certain size and ours is already self-evidently too big. It's the same for other clubs. Arsene Wenger is saying he has to get players out at Arsenal before he can get them in. We are no different. What we want is the best 25 players we can get, but that's easy to say."
Stoke have agreed a £1.6 million deal for Houston Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron, subject to a work permit, but there is not expected to be much further activity.
Coates added: "We are expecting some change around, but not a large amount. But if people come in for some of our players and it suits us to do a deal then that opens up possibilities."
