CHIEF executive Tom Glick has defended the sale of Derby County striker Rob Hulse.

Hulse's move to Queen's Park Rangers, where he will sign a three-year deal, was still to be ratified by the Football League late last night.

The fee for the 30-year-old is undisclosed.

Derby have dismissed reports coming out of London that the fee is £400,000 rising to £800,000 and I understand they will receive around £750,000 rising to well over £1m depending on how the player and Rangers fare this season.

Hulse and Luke Varney, who has joined Blackpool on a season-long loan, have left Pride Park in the past week and Glick has confirmed that the Rams' wage bill is about where they want it to be at just below £10m.

But he says it remains one of the highest in the Championship.

The decision to sell Hulse, who has been the club's leading scorer in the past two seasons, has not gone down well with some fans who believe the club's owners should loosen the purse strings and show more ambition when it comes to signing players.

On Hulse, Glick said: "We had an offer for Rob that came in late.

"We presented it to the manager (Nigel Clough) and coaching staff and they made the judgement from a football stand-point that this was an offer that was right to accept.

"We are conscious he has been our leading scorer in the past two seasons but the things Nigel and his team would be thinking about is that Rob will be 31 in a few weeks and has got nine months to go on his contract.

"All this would have been taken into account in terms of whether Rob would be a player for the future of the club or whether it was right to make a change.

"The decision has been made that somebody else is going to be the target man to take us to that next step and this is the right time to part ways.

"Of course, we expected a backlash to the sale but, ultimately, we have the same objectives as the supporters – to compete for the play-offs, for promotion, to win promotion and to stay up in the Premier League.

"We owe it to them to have the discipline and strength of our convictions, and the manager, the coaching staff and the scouting team are more than capable of making the right recruiting decisions.

"We have the same objectives as the supporters and all the decisions we are making are being based on those objectives.

"But we have to have some budget discipline and that is where you get the separation, because some supporters would rather you spare no expense, gamble and go for it.

"I think there are too many examples showing that strategy doesn't work."

Glick said Derby will do business when the window for emergency loans opens on Tuesday.

"There are going to be more and better players available, because of the Premier League's 25-man squad rule," added Glick.

"We are after a couple of specific targets.

"I think if we had a fit squad, questions about loosening the purse strings would not be coming up.

"The question is more apt when we have a number of guys carrying injuries but they are not serious injuries, apart from Steven Davies.

"We have a temporary injury problem but the squad is not as lean as it seems at the moment.

"Nigel wants to run a tight squad. He wants to have all the players engaged and with a chance of getting in the side.

"I think we have shown a willingness to invest in the squad.

"We continue to run one of the highest wage bills in the League. We have brought in eight players this summer, investment has been made in this window and we have spent quite a bit of money on Alberto Bueno. He is not an inexpensive player."

Glick said Derby had made offers for other players during the transfer window, including Scunthorpe United striker Gary Hooper, who signed for Celtic.

"If Hooper had come for what we bid for him, it would have been a big fee but he chose to go somewhere else and part of that was to do with wages," said Glick.

"And you have to, as you would in any deal, walk away from the table when you feel it has gone past what good value would be."

Derby bid "well over" £1m for Hooper but Celtic got their man by splashing out £2.5m.

Glick dismissed reports that the Rams had bid for Notts County's attacking midfielder Ben Davies but confirmed that the player is one the manager is keen on.