AT the time of writing this column Tim Ream stood, bags packed, on the verge of leaving Bolton Wanderers, destination unknown.

Reaction to the defender’s impending departure to QPR, or indeed Fulham, has been fierce this week.

Many have accused the Whites of not getting a good price, others that the two-time player of the year should not be allowed to leave at all.

But while I would miss Ream – a consummate professional, an excellent player, and one of the most thoroughly nice chaps I’ve had the fortune to meet in this job – I’m not oblivious to the fact that this is a ‘needs must’ situation.

If fans needed to wise up to the finely balanced finances at Wanderers, then perhaps this will do the trick?

As I understand it, Neil Lennon is not in a position to make another signing in this transfer window unless someone goes the other way.

That isn’t scaremongering. Those are the facts.

Lennon needs two, three, maybe four more bodies in the longer-term to balance out his squad and clubs are not queuing up to sign the players he would readily escort out of the door himself.

That situation puts Wanderers at a disadvantage as a selling club, yet QPR, the club who looked most likely heading into the weekend to sign the defender, also find themselves in a tight financial hole.

The Hoops have the icy finger of FFP pointing in their direction, and have legal proceedings in the pipeline that could mean a massive fine for flouting the Football League’s spending rules last time they were in the Championship.

Two years ago we might have anticipated an over-inflated bid from Loftus Road, but not these days.

My only surprise in all this is that Fulham, who were still lingering on Friday night and whose transfer kitty seems healthy in comparison, have not done more to complete the deal.

Fans have been sympathetic towards manager Lennon but he’s wise enough to know how this all works. He’s nobody’s mug.

He went through the motions during negotiations, checking every “not for sale” comment with a slight concession that every player has his price, in this case £2m.

Some people feel that is not enough. I am not one of them.

Ream was signed for £2.3m from New York Red Bulls at a time when Wanderers were a Premier League club with money to spend and a hole to fill following the sale of Gary Cahill to Chelsea. In my own opinion, they paid slightly over the odds in 2012 for a young man who’d had limited experience in MLS and internationally.

Ream proved a good purchase, eventually, but let us not forget his one season in the Premier League ended in relegation, and it took some time for him to adjust to the hustle and bustle of the Championship.

As such, he is being sold as a second-tier player. It is pointless comparing this deal with something like James Chester (£8m, Hull to West Brom) as any transfer involving a Premier League club defies any kind of financial logic these days.

As a Championship to Championship transfer, it isn’t a bad one in my view, even if it feels a little to me like he is being forced out of the door.

I’ve heard the situation compared to that of Great Dane Per Frandsen in the late nineties – his reluctant exit to Blackburn Rovers eventually proving the last straw for Colin Todd, who resigned almost immediately after.

In this instance I don’t feel Ream has sought a move elsewhere but the potential funds involved make it a necessary evil for Wanderers, and for Lennon if he wants to put his stamp on this squad.

Fans have demanded to know whether the potential fee will be converted into transfer funds for the manager but realistically, it all goes into the same pot.

It is a safe bet that some, if not all, the mooted £1.75m fee will go towards what the club termed in their recent accounts as “reducing the reliance” on owner Eddie Davies.

As attempts to sell the club continue, there is ample evidence to suggest the amount of funding from the Isle of Man-based businessman has also diminished, which means Wanderers need to start standing on their own two feet, sharpish.

Lennon may benefit from the wages saved in the remainder of Ream’s contract – which in real terms could mean two new signings.

In an ideal world, the Whites boss would have kept hold of the American and still dealt in the transfer market. But people need to realise that the Macron Stadium is no longer an ideal world.