JULIAN Rhodes has revealed that City's playing budget last season ended up at the same level as the previous year.

And the Bantams will go into next term with a surplus approaching £800,000 – even after clearing their £1million overspend.

Rhodes has offered a rough breakdown of last season's finances to give supporters an idea of how the money was spent.

"Last season was an illustration of how everything was done very well," he said.

"We gave short-term contracts and as we earned the money, we extended them. That's the way of life at Bradford.

"I can't comment on what will happen to the budget if the takeover happens. But if we stay as we are, we've got £800,000 to add on to next season and we'll probably speculate again.

"We'll end up with a budget slightly bigger than the last couple of years, which was in the top ten of the division."

Rhodes admitted there was "a lot of hoo-ha" over the decision to chop Phil Parkinson's budget by £500,000 a year ago.

He said: "The only reason the season before we'd had the budget we did was because we had Nahki Wells to sell. We didn't make any money elsewhere.

"We cut the budget by 20 per cent but that still left us knowing we'd have to raise £750,000 through cups and transfers.

"Then on the eve of the season, we realised we needed to expand the budget further so added £250,000 – meaning we needed to find £1million.

"The problem we had was that a few players were on a lot of money and taking up a large chunk, so we couldn't have a squad.

"I said to Phil 'if we don't do well in the cups, we'll have to sell'. His reply was 'we will do well' – and fair play, we did."

Tom Cleverley's non-move hit City hard as they lost a potential £750,000 sell-on windfall. But the bonus of drawing Leeds in a televised Capital One Cup tie allowed Parkinson to extend the monthly deals on Filipe Morais and Ben Williams and bring in Jon Stead.

The cups were to prove hugely profitable, initially balancing the books and then a whole lot more.

Rhodes said: "Getting Halifax on the telly gave us a bit more money and then we got through to the FA Cup third round.

"I had a meeting with Phil at the end of December and said if we did get knocked out (by Millwall), we'd still probably have to sell someone in January.

"But that proved a rather good month, especially when we drew Chelsea – not that we ever expected to beat them.

"Cleverley didn't happen again, though we didn't think it would, but we got a bit from the loan fee Aston Villa paid.

"Williams, Morais, Stead and (Andy) Halliday were all up and we agreed again to increase the budget by a further £250,000. So it was back to what it had been the season before.

"We asked Phil whether he wanted to do any more but he was pleased with the squad and one or two extra additions. So the money we made after that goes into next year.

"So as the season went on, we not only got rid of the £1.25million we needed to by this point, but smashed that to end up with a £750,000-£800,000 surplus.

"It will be the first time in many years we're going into a season with money."

The budget, which finished at around £2.5million, was thought to be the ninth-highest in League One.

Rhodes dismisses the critics who accuse the club of "flying by the seat of their pants" by setting an overspend each time, saying: "It seems to be working.

"Those who complain are the ones who haven't a clue how to manage a budget. It's very easy to criticise people when it's not their money we're talking about.

"That's why we're probably the only Football League club that's posted a profit for the last four years and one of the only ones with a positive balance sheet – by doing it by the seat of our pants.

"The negative comments amuse me sometimes. But we've all had a lot of good memories in the last few years.

"If we hadn't had the cup run, we'd have probably ended up in the play-offs. But we wouldn't have swapped the cup, would we?

"Next season, by the way tickets are going, we're going to have some phenomenal crowds like we did in the cup games."

And Rhodes insists the City hierarchy are right to maintain their policy of financial openness with supporters.

"We turned to the people of Bradford in 2007 to help resurrect the club when we slashed season-ticket prices," he said.

"My opinion is they have the right to know what's going on. It helps people to feel part of it."