FORMER Blackburn midfielder David Batty and his Leeds United team-mates have come in for a barrage of criticism this week after refusing to take a pay-cut.

Irate fans are pointing the finger of blame firmly in the players' direction as the club teeters on the brink of financial melt-down.

But the real villains in this whole sorry saga are the people who plunged the club into debt in the first place -- and Rovers would be wise to learn some valuable lessons from their mistakes.

I can understand why Blackburn fans feel frustrated by the club's current lack of activity in the transfer market.

Graeme Souness is in desperate need of reinforcements as he battles to keep the club in the Premiership.

But the bottom line is you can't carry on spending money that you simply haven't got.

John Williams made it clear in this very paper last week that the board are doing everything to back the manager in the transfer market.

But he also said that the club can't afford to be 'irresponsible' in their spending.

That kind of message probably won't win him any popularity contests with the fans but if it stops Rovers going the same way as Leeds then he has to be applauded.

Leeds are in massive trouble. Regardless of what happens between now and the end of the transfer window, they look doomed to relegation and who knows what will happen to them after that?

They could so easily go the same way as fellow Yorkshire giant, Sheffield Wednesday, who are currently battling to avoid relegation to the Third Division.

The fans will argue that it's down to the players to bail them out by agreeing to defer a chunk of their wages until the end of the season.

But I've got to say I'm with the players on this one and I can understand why they are sticking to their guns.

At the end of the day, it's not their fault that the club is £80 million in debt -- blame Peter Ridsdale and Co for that.

People will argue that most of the squad are on £20,000-a-week-plus and a cut of 20 to 30 per cent between now and the end of the season is not much to ask.

However, money is relative and the players will all have their own financial commitments, whether it's a whopping mortgage or a huge pension.

It's not that easy, therefore, to suddenly slash 30 per cent off your pay-packet with no guarantee that you'll get the money back in the summer.

I remember a time at Rovers in the pre-Jack Walker days when money was very tight.

On one occasion, we didn't get paid at all and that made a big difference in those days because no of us was earning a fortune.

Thankfully, that only happened once. The club was hard up but they always seemed to pay the players on time.

No-one wants to see the club return to that state in the future which is why the lessons must be learned now.

If anyone wants a model on which to base the running of a club then have a look at Charlton rather than the boom and bust years of Leeds under Mr Ridsdale.