"But with financial restrictions in the background, and with the ponderous Rudkin in charge of transfers, progress has been painfully slow, with only full-back Woyo Coulibaly signed in a £2m deal from Italian club Parma."
This is as scathing as it usually gets about Rudkin in the press. The net is certainly tightening around him.
There's even no need to sack him if that's what Top's avoiding. Simple restructure, put him as KP's sporting project guy but putting an experienced DOF (cough Dan Ashworth cough) in place to actually run the club.