Graeme Jones has praised Hatters chief executive Gary Sweet for speaking the truth on the ‘mayhem’ of Championship finances and insists how Luton go about their business is based more in reality.
The Town supremo penned a very open and honest column for last week’s match day programme in which he revealed the club have had to spend in excess of £1million just to bring Kenilworth Road in line with the league’s requirements.
Sweet also gave a breakdown of when transfer money would arrive for the club record sales of James Justin and Jack Stacey and how it would be utilised.
Jones said: “What Gary spoke about is the truth. That’s the reality of the game, that’s our transfer payments work. Everybody looks and says, ‘oh, they’ve got that type of money,’ but it’s not like that at all. I knew that when I joined the club.
“I would agree (it’s mayhem). What we’ve got here is reality. It’s realistic here. That was a big attraction for me coming to the club. I like that. No matter what happens, financially, we will always keep it realistic. We have to fight for that, that’s staff, players and supporters, we have to fight to keep it that way.”
Town can’t match the financial might of many of their Championship rivals because of the limitations of their current home and, while they broke their club record transfer fee to sign Croation goalkeeper Simon Sluga for €1.5million, they’ve recruit six free agents and three Premier League loanees late on transfer deadline day.
Speaking before the capture of Aston Villa’s James Bree, Chelsea’s Izzy Brown and Manchester City’s Luke Bolton, Jones added: “We’ve got a salary cap that we are not prepared to break this season, for anybody.
“I think everybody knows the club is level-headed, I think everybody knows the club has got a long-term vision. It’s not about going out and spending some of the ridiculous Championship money that has been spent in joining the party. We have to be different to everyone else, and that’s the challenge, is the truth, but that is why I wanted to become a manager and that is why I wanted to join Luton.
“If we had £50 million to spend maybe other people could do my job a little bit easier, so I’m just in embracing it.”
