Birmingham City co-owner David Sullivan is ready to wield the axe and cut squad numbers as they prepare for next season's Championship campaign.
At least nine players will be leaving St Andrew's this summer and Sullivan admits the clear-out could be even more dramatic.
He said: "The players are hardly likely to say sorry. Players are not going to say sorry because, by their nature, they believe in themselves. I think they are quite arrogant people.
"I won't name players but some of them haven't done as well as you would have hoped for the money.
"They will blame everybody but themselves. As everybody will, I suppose. I'll blame somebody, the manager will blame somebody. The reality is we are all partly responsible.
"We also have to think about players who are perpetually injured for the club and get some replacements in."
Sullivan added: "We need fresh legs, young legs, hungry legs. There will be players who just don't want to play at Southend and there's no point saying 'you've got a contract, you've got no choice'.
"We have to decide which players go and which players to bring in to take us back up.
"We need 20 players next year who want to play in the Championship and who want to bring Birmingham back.
"You don't want players who want to be somewhere else and who are going through the motions and who are earning big wages with us because no one else wants them.
"That's the danger. You don't want them turning up at Southend and not breaking sweat.
"We will continue to pay Premiership wages in the Championship. We will bring in players, young players from Premiership clubs. We've still got more financial clout than most clubs in the Championship so we should do better than most of them.
"But if you look historically, it's hard for teams to bounce back. But I expect to."
At least nine players will be leaving St Andrew's this summer and Sullivan admits the clear-out could be even more dramatic.
He said: "The players are hardly likely to say sorry. Players are not going to say sorry because, by their nature, they believe in themselves. I think they are quite arrogant people.
"I won't name players but some of them haven't done as well as you would have hoped for the money.
"They will blame everybody but themselves. As everybody will, I suppose. I'll blame somebody, the manager will blame somebody. The reality is we are all partly responsible.
"We also have to think about players who are perpetually injured for the club and get some replacements in."
Sullivan added: "We need fresh legs, young legs, hungry legs. There will be players who just don't want to play at Southend and there's no point saying 'you've got a contract, you've got no choice'.
"We have to decide which players go and which players to bring in to take us back up.
"We need 20 players next year who want to play in the Championship and who want to bring Birmingham back.
"You don't want players who want to be somewhere else and who are going through the motions and who are earning big wages with us because no one else wants them.
"That's the danger. You don't want them turning up at Southend and not breaking sweat.
"We will continue to pay Premiership wages in the Championship. We will bring in players, young players from Premiership clubs. We've still got more financial clout than most clubs in the Championship so we should do better than most of them.
"But if you look historically, it's hard for teams to bounce back. But I expect to."
