Watford eased their financial worries this week by selling Dan Shittu and securing a bank loan.

Shittu joined Bolton Wanderers in a £2m deal on Tuesday and that came on the back of the news that Barclays Bank have agreed to loan the club £4m until the end of January. By also selling Darius Henderson for £2m the club have generated £8m in the past fortnight.

The club refused to confirm they have secured a further loan but did confirm they have now paid off a short-term bank facility, believed to be around £7m, this week.

“The club can confirm it has received the bulk of its final parachute payment for 2008/09,” said Watford’s head of communications Scott Field.

”Furthermore, the club can confirm that it has recently repaid in full a short-term borrowing facility, leaving the club with one significant outstanding loan of circa £600k to the chairman.

The club is not at liberty to disclose further financial information, including details of any conversations with our bank.”

The Watford Observer understands the club held discussions with the bank last Thursday and been granted a £4m loan which is scheduled to be repaid at the end of the next transfer window.

Lord Michael Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, revealed last month that he and Graham Simpson are prepared to sell their shares in the club.

The Watford Observer understands the club have received interest from the Middle East and a Hungarian businessman, while Nigel Wray, the owner of Saracens Rugby Club, has also held discussions with Simpson over the freehold of the Vicarage Road Stadium.

“The club regularly meets with Saracens and their representatives and it is common knowledge that the existing contract with Saracens has a break clause in 2011,” added Field.

“Discussions regarding this are ongoing and the contents of these discussions will remain private.”

Manager Aidy Boothroyd has refused to rule out the prospect of Tommy Smith and Jobi McAnuff being sold.

Simpson warned in May that players would be sold and the wage bill would need to be reduced after the club missed out on promotion to the Premiership.

Asked if he envisages any more player sales, Boothroyd said: “That depends on where we are with our bank. I can’t answer that. I can’t reassure anyone on that one.

“I don’t want to sell my best players but people have got to want your players first. I’d rather sell players that I want to go. A Tommy or a Jobi are assets but they are assets on the pitch, too. I just hope we can get by without selling any more.”

Added Boothroyd: “The sale of Danny will ease a lot of our concerns but I don’t think I’ll be getting too much of that money. Danny’s wages being freed up will help me get someone in but I don’t expect to be able to buy anyone which is why I’m looking at loans and free transfers.

“Of course I’m not happy about it, but I understand it and that’s the way it is. At the end of the season I might look back at it and say that’s best thing that happened to me as a manager. The true test of a manager is having to build again and that’s where I find myself, having to build again.

“I would prefer to be where we were last year but the situation is that players have had to be sold and I’ve got to do some serious wheeling and dealing.

“I am concerned but if I whinge about it, moan about it and play the violin card then that isn’t going to help anyone. The best thing is to just to get on with it.”

The sale of Shittu and the retirement of Matt Jackson this week cut around £18,000 a week off the club’s wage bill.

Boothroyd will now be allowed to sign free agent Ulises De la Cruz on a one-year contract, table a bid of around £150,000 for Ivory Coast defender Souleymane Bamba and bring in a striker on loan or on a free transfer.

“It’s bargain basement stuff and about gelling a team together of lads who have done it and lads who are young and hungy,” the manager said. “The main thing is we need that team spirit. If our heads drop then we could have a problem.”