Bristol City's search for a new striker is being hampered by a soaring wage bill.

Manager Gary Johnson has made no secret of his desire to recruit a replacement for Andrius Velicka, the Lithuanian international who was cruelly struck down by injury just days after completing a season- long loan from Scottish Premier League champions Rangers.

But funding is an issue and there is only so much money chairman Steve Lansdown can make available to a manager who will doubtless be forced to cut his cloth accordingly.

City's cash flow is not being helped by having to fork out in excess of £250,000 to cover the cost of Velicka's contract until the end of May.

Not only are they paying the wages of someone who will play no further part in their season, they are also struggling to off-load high earners such as Adriano Basso.

With the transfer window due to shut at 5pm tomorrow, City have still to receive a single bid for goalkeeper Basso, who handed in a written transfer request last month after refusing to sign a new contract.

The Brazilian has since lost his place in the first team to new signing Dean Gerken and, as things stand at present, his decision to seek a move appears to be a serious miscalculation on his part.

Given that Republic of Ireland Under-21 international keeper Stephen Henderson has recovered from a broken toe and is rapidly regaining full fitness, City could potentially make Basso available on loan should he fail to secure a move before tomorrow's deadline.

Even then, the club will still have to pay his wages until Henderson is ready to come into the first-team squad and provide competition for Gerken.

However, City's coffers have been given a boost by Swansea City's decision to take Lee Trundle on loan until January 1, although the Welsh club is not paying all of the striker's wages.

While there is little City can do to remedy the Velicka situation, their failure to offload Basso and Trundle permanently is proving increasingly frustrating and rendering Johnson's search for a new striker more problematical.

He could potentially offer a short-term deal to either Vincent Pericard or Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, who joined the Championship club on trial this week, but both have unenviable injury records and have played very little football over the past year.

On the flip side of the coin, City at least look likely to retain their best players, despite rumours to the contrary.

Marvin Elliott became the latest first team star to be linked with a rival club when a national newspaper reported Wigan Athletic were preparing to table a bid of £3.5 million for the combative midfielder.

As yet, Wigan have not contacted City and the story, like so many others of it's kind, must be considered an unsubstantiated rumour, in all likelihood propagated by Elliott's new agent in a bid to drum up interest in his client.

City chairman Lansdown attributes such speculation to the club's new-found status as an established Championship outfit.

He explained: "It's no surprise to me that our name and our players are being used so often in the media. Agents use the newspapers and television to generate interest in their players and it's well known that we're in the market place these days and looking to sign good footballers.

"We don't sign that many and we're very diligent about the ones we do bring in, but that level of media interest simply wasn't there when we were in League One."