Burton turned down £1m for Shade in survival fight

Burton Albion turned down an offer of more than £1m for forward Tyrese Shade in January as the League One club braces itself for a relegation battle, says sporting director Richard Dorman.

Saint Kitts and Nevis international Shade, 25, is the Brewers' joint top scorer across all competitions with 10 goals this season and grabbed the attention of an unnamed Championship club, with an offer made just days before the winter transfer window closed.

With Gary Bowyers' Burton side third from bottom in the table and a third of the season remaining, Dorman said the "hard decision" was reached to keep the forward at the Pirelli Stadium despite the significant profit they could have made for a player they signed just six months earlier from National League Eastleigh.

"We needed to decline because we knew what we needed to do to have the best team for the rest of the season," Dorman told BBC Radio Derby.

"It's a lot of money, but also being relegated to League Two would cost us a lot of money. And for the whole project, for the fans and community, that would be a disaster."

Shade joined the east Staffordshire side in July last year, just days after the club sold Jamaica international striker Rumarn Burrell to Queens Park Rangers for a fee understood to be just over £1m.

Shade was not the only player that Burton had to resist approaches for, with fellow 10-goal striker Jake Beesley and defender Udoka Godwin-Malife both attracting "official offers".

"We went into the window knowing we needed to strengthen the group, not sell somebody and have to replace them," Dorman added.

"To strengthen meant keeping the group together so Gary has the best possible chance to get that group performing.

"We wanted crazy money if someone was going to change that plan, and nobody was ready to offer that, which means we need to stick to the plan to keep our place in League One."

Burton have been in a near constant battle for survival in England third tier in recent years.

Bowyer keeping the side up last season, in what was the club's first year under the ownership of the Nordic Football Group (NFG), was described as a "miracle" at the time.

But even in the years before Bowyer's arrival, Dino Maamria and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink pulled off similarly remarkable relegation escape acts while at the helm of the Brewers.

What it took last term, however, was readjusting how Burton approached the game after NFG's takeover signalled a British record recruitment drive and attempt to move towards a more expansive style of play built on youth and potential.

When Dorman took the job last summer, he admits "the playing style was a bit broken" as those brought in during the summer for a "tiki-taka type" of game needed to be "more physical, more robust and more direct" under Bowyer.

"The main thing we did have was Gary, and that was the perfect starting point to be honest," he said.

"The thought process before Gary came in was slightly wrong for League One. And Gary is actually the perfect man because he does develop players and he does win, which is what he showed last year."

While NFG boasts billionaire backers, Dorman said last season's level of spending needed to be checked, "budgets reassessed" and a "financial structure established" after posting club-record losses of £8m.

"We had to work back from that," Dorman said.

"I think the the first day I started, we had £20,000 to spend and we didn't have new contracts, captain Ryan Sweeney and three or four other players were out of contract.

"That was a learning point for NFG."