CAPTAIN Tommy Elphick insists Cherries will not be daunted by their Premier League rivals flexing their financial muscle.

Relegation-haunted Newcastle reportedly splashed out £29million in January – more than was spent in Spain’s top flight – with the likes of Jonjo Shelvey and Andros Townsend the pick of their arrivals.

Second-bottom Sunderland drafted in five players for an estimated total of £16million in a bid to avoid the trapdoor with a bumper broadcast deal adding £2billion to the cash pot over three years from next season.

But Elphick is adamant the millions added to transfer deals makes no difference to what players can deliver and that market values have no bearing on how recruits are treated at Cherries.

Elphick told the Daily Echo: “It is natural with the way football is going. With these big Sky deals, the prize is getting bigger all the time so it stands to reason that player prices are going to rise through that.

“You see the knock-on effect in the Championship, even in League One, it is just the way it is going. From a player’s point of view, you can’t get lost in it.

“The bottom line is we are all footballers, we are all the same and whether you’re coming in on a free or for millions of pounds, the way we train, settle them in and approach new faces does not change.”

Cherries invested in their own right, spending around £17million on strikers Benik Afobe and Lewis Grabban as well as taking Juan Iturbe on loan and capturing bargain-buy Rhoys Wiggins.

“It has taken things to another level again and that’s the direction the club is heading,” he added. “It is great from our point of view to attract the quality we have and it comes from having a huge asset in the manager.

“Once he gets his teeth into these players and starts laying out his plans, it is hard to turn him down.

“If you look at it historically, whenever new players have come in, it has brought more out of the players already here.

“We are all singing from the same hymn sheet in terms of where we want to be at the end of the season and to have top players helping us towards that gives the whole place a massive lift.”

Meanwhile, the skipper, who returned to action in the FA Cup win at Portsmouth six days ago, believes comebacks for injured stars such as Callum Wilson and Maxi Gradel can be like a second wave of new signings at the business end of the season.

“Myself, Callum and Maxi were playing at the start of the season, we didn’t get to see so much of Tyrone but we were all in good form when we got injured,” said Elphick.

“That could be a little ace up our sleeve. Any player you get back to fitness is going to boost the squad. We know how hard we have to work and what the gaffer wants so hopefully, we can all come back and boost the squad.”