It seems the facts of the matter have been explained to Hughton, who today put a twist on the story by saying "I will not risk upsetting the balance of the squad by making wholesale changes in January".
In other words ... Ashley is giving him coppers (and not millions) to spend!
At a time we should be looking for players who are good enough to produce the goods in the Premiership, we will be going down the road of free transfers and loan deals.
Chris Hughton: "We are aware of the players who come into that. Whether we will get those targets or not, I don't know. That's something we will work towards over this next month.
"The one thing you never know is what other targets will become available because we are in a period of time when there are players who you never, ever thought would be available who you find now are.
"But I don't see us adding too much to the squad. What I have also got to be mindful of is not to disrupt too much what we have here. It's been quite a tight group that we have had here.
"What we have done so far is bring in the right type of person, and that's what we have got to make sure of again."