Blackburn chairman John Williams says Rovers struggle to compete financially with its Premier League rivals as 80% of the club's income is spent on wages.

The relegation-threatened club made an operating profit of �6.6m in 2007-08.

The club, having spent �39.7m of its �56m record turnover on wages, continue to fall behind in the salary stakes.

Williams told the Lancashire Telegraph: "The worrying thing is that as our percentage remains high, we are falling down the absolute wage chart."

Premier League clubs are spending a greater proportion of their cash on wages than ever before, but most aim not to spend more than about 50% of their turnover on wages.

Rovers, second from bottom in the league, do not enjoy huge gate receipts and, unlike many Premier League clubs, cannot rely on a wealthy backer.

606: DEBATE Williams tells it as it is. He has been a godsend for Rovers as far as I am concerned Walkdenrover

"That enables us to pay a bit more in wages. We don't play other people's turnover, we play their wage bills."

Williams insisted the club did not need to sell players, but did concede Rovers could not afford to make mistakes in the transfer window.

Rovers kept hold of striker Roque Santa Cruz in January despite overtures from Manchester City.

And Williams said: "It would be very comforting from a balance sheet point of view, but we don't actually need the �20m for Roque.

"The problem is it invariably gets harder and harder to replace on a like-for-like basis.

"It's all about good scouting, selling high and buying low. Can we keep repeating that trick? I think we can but what we can't do is make a big mistake.

"You can make a small mistake, everyone does, but we can't go out and spend �5m on a player who is not good enough. That would kill us because our finances are so finely balanced.

"If we can keep the profit and finances charge costs in line by finishing mid-table, our model suggests we can still be a trading club because there is no need to sell."

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