Norwich City’s multi-million pound debts will not force them to flog their best talent in next month’s transfer window.

Soon to be joint minority shareholder, Mark Attanasio, and recently-appointed sporting director, Ben Knapper, unveiled a data-driven strategy to target a Premier League return at last week’s annual meeting.

Knapper is currently drawing up a January transfer plan, but finance and operations director, Anthony Richens, insists there is no pressure to raise funds to pay down borrowings.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire estimated £96m was owed according to the last set of published club accounts, although that figure excluded a player trading surplus in the summer and a final parachute payment.

“You won’t see us sell someone in January with a view to just raising cash,” said Richens. “Previously player trading was used to finance the club. We have moved away from that and every decision we take in that area must now make sense from a football perspective and whether we can benefit financially from holding that transfer back a bit.

“Our approach is that we want to maximize the value of our assets. It means that we have assets that we can call upon, but we won’t do that with a gun to our head. So, when we re-sell some of our playing assets it should be viewed on a long-term basis.

“We are fortunate to have supportive owners, so instead of this debt to be something that a financial institution might call at a certain time, then our debt is primarily to the owners which is very different.

“We would like to end up in a place where we could turn down an offer for one of our players, even though the offer would top the current valuation, simply because we might feel that there was even further value to develop. Today we would probably accept a transfer if it was above the market value, but in a few years time hopefully we can turn down such offers.”

Richens, speaking in a wide-ranging interview for football business site, Off the Pitch which also covered harnessing data and increasing matchday revenue incomes, made it clear there is no quick fix.

“There should be no doubt that we want to go back to the Premier League, but the most important thing is building an organization – and a football team – of Premier League standard,” he said. “It means that we are not necessarily in the transfer market after players that could play Premier League tomorrow.

"We try to find players that we can develop into Premier League players along the way. And that type of players should also represent a re-sale opportunity for us, which is also very, very important for us.

“The vision directs everything we do. What we do in the Championship is preparing to be an established Premier League club. It is not all about getting promotion, but making sure that when we get promotion, we can stay there.”