Celtic manager Martin O'Neill insists he is going nowhere despite club chairman Brian Quinn admitting that there were only "limited" funds available for team development in the forthcoming months.
But the Hoops boss has warned the board that he will need finances to further the development of the team, particularly on the European stage.
And midfielder Stilian Petrov has urged the board to strengthen the side or risk losing O'Neill.
O'Neill maintains that he will not be leaving the club but believes that "common sense" dictates that the board must be willing to shell out for greater success.
"I have got a contract here and am only halfway through that," said O'Neill.
"I want to see that through and I said on my first day here that, if I haven't seen it all the way through, it is because I have been sacked.
"I have another year-and-a-half to run on my contract here and I will be here for that duration. I want the contract to mean something.
"But, for Celtic to go to the next level, the side would definitely need strengthening and, to strengthen the side, you need some money to do so.
"I was given a budget when I arrived at the club and I am going to adhere to that regardless of what happens. I am still within that budget on my figures.
"The whole idea is for us to progress and the only way to do that would be to improve the squad.
"The players have done remarkably well and I have made more changes than I did last season.
"The squad is actually numerically smaller and that is full credit to the players.
"It is not a cry for help, it is just straight-forward thinking. If you had injuries like the one Didier Agathe suffered to a couple more key players, you couldn't possibly be thinking about success on a European front at all.
"The players here have done fine but we want to improve again so the logical thing is, if we lost one or two of those and weren't able to replace them, you wouldn't improve in Europe and you would be lucky to be still leading the league in Scotland.
"That isn't a warning of any sort - it is straight-forward common sense."
PA