WORCESTER Warriors will not overpay to sign players this summer, insists chairman Bill Bolsover.

Work is continuing at Sixways to strengthen their squad ahead of the 2017-18 Aviva Premiership campaign with Bolsover admitting Warriors were keen to get “one or two” more players on board.

A fly-half is likely to be at the top of director of rugby Gary Gold’s wanted list to help them steer clear of relegation next term.

With Sixways Holding Limited backing the club financially Bolsover is confident they will land their targets.

But the Worcester chief says he is also wary of disrupting his side’s team ethos with a big-money signing.

“One thing the owners have done here is to not hold up on putting funds into the club,” Bolsover said.

“I might be a bit tighter than that in a sense that I believe we have got to get value for the money we put in.

“If someone came up tomorrow and we wanted them I would guarantee we would get them.

“But we will not overpay for people in the market to get them because I think what is so important in rugby is you create one team.

“What we don’t want to do is to have three or four stars who become slightly aloof to the rest of the team.

“At the moment we have created a team and the fact we are bringing through these academy people is really encouraging as well.”

At the end of last season 18 first-team players and five academy prospects left Worcester with many of them not offered new deals.

Just six have been brought in for next term in back row David Denton, fly-half Sam Olver, props Ethan Waller and Simon Kerrod, lock Pierce Phillips and wing Tom Howe.

But Bolsover insisted Gold and consultant Ed Griffiths had created a squad capable of improving on last season's second-from-bottom finish.

“We took a lot of players out at the end of the season but we have done that to create a much stronger squad,” Bolsover said.

“We can’t afford to have people on the edge of it.

“We have got an active squad and everyone in it will now be playing rugby all season whether they go on loan, play here or somewhere else.

“But we have got a much tighter squad that Gary and Ed have created.

“We are really happy going into next season.

“There are still one or two people we would like to take on board but we have not got them at the moment.”