MORTON boss Jim Duffy believes he will be able to use the wages freed up by Fouad Bachirou’s departure to strengthen his squad.

The want-away midfielder was sold to Swedish side Ostersunds FK on Friday for a transfer fee believed to be in the region of £20,000.

His surprise exit leaves a gaping hole in the Ton midfield, but Duffy revealed the Comoros internationalist’s salary was part of his playing budget and should be available to spend.

He told the Tele: “The move came out of the blue. It was a very quick transaction. It was literally a call on Thursday with an offer then a bit of negotiation before it was agreed.

“He was a player who had expressed a desire to leave the club. He’d been with Morton for four seasons and just felt that his time at the club had run its course.

“That’s his prerogative obviously, and when a player expresses a desire to leave the club you have two options: to keep an unhappy player or try and move him on.

“So we decided as a club that it was the best situation for everybody to allow him to move on. It was all done very quickly.

“He looked a very talented player, but I can’t miss what I didn’t have.

“I never had him in any of the competitive matches and wasn’t here over the last few seasons to see him play.

“Good players leave, you accept it. It’s part and parcel of football and happens to every club all over the country.

“Will I have his wages to spend? That’s not something that has really been discussed.

“I mean, I’ve got my budget and Freddie was in the budget, so obviously you’ll have the salary that’s no longer there.

“That goes back into the budget, and the chairman hasn’t said anything different to that, but I don’t really want to discuss much about budgets and wages.

“It’s the players who are here, the players who want to be here, and the players who are going to be here that I’ve got to concern myself with, not players who’ve left.”