It took a while but I've worked it out.
Anyone remember the film 'Brewster's Millions'? The one where the wealthy owner of a company gives Richard Prior's character x million dollars which he must spend every cent of in a fixed time to get his reward?
Well, Leibherr has set a similar challenge to Cortese, albeit in reverse.
He sat Cortese down on day one and said, "Nicola. If you can save me a million pounds in operating costs by this time next year you can have £10m for transfers next August. The one catch is that you're not allowed to tell ANYONE why you are making these cuts and savings for a whole year. You will inevitably find yourself annoying many fans, and local newspapers, as they won't have a clue what you are doing as only you will know the pot of gold at the end of your challenge. Good luck Nicola, good luck."
© script copyright Trousers 2010