As he prepares to face a Derby County side that can afford to sign Wayne Rooney, Luton boss Graeme Jones admits it’s ‘more worrying than ever’ that the amount of money a club spends is now largely dictating the level of success on the pitch.
England’s record goalscorer officially joined the Rams at the beginning of the month on reported £50,000 per week wages, in a deal that netted the club an increased sponsorship package from betting company 32 Red.
The Pride Park club have also been charged by the EFL for breaching financial rules over the controversial sale of their stadium to their owner Mel Morris, which at £80million, converted 2017-18 losses into a £14.6m profit. That kept County within the permitted limit of £39million of losses over a three-season period.
Derby refute the charge, calling it unlawful, but, if found guilty, the maximum penalty could be 21 points, which would drop them to the foot of the Championship table, where Luton currently sit.
Yet, the levels of acceptable losses allowed in the Championship married with Luton’s current difficulties in affording talent the transfer market, has raised the question of how Town, who cut their cloth accordingly, can compete on the pitch.
“I wish it was a level playing field because it would certainly make my job easier,” said boss Jones, adding: To try and compete with Derby and the power of their money, just one team, is incredibly difficult.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the powers that be. I’d rather earn it on the football pitch and over a season, so that’s all I’m concentrating on.
“I am from a school that anything can be achieved. We did it at Swansea with a low budget. We finished eighth with a low budget, so we had one of the lowest budgets and managed to overachieve.
“We did it at Wigan but if you look at Norwich’s situation, they’re the lowest spenders in the (Premier) League. We’ve probably got the lowest budget in the (Championship) league.
“I think, more worrying than ever, how much you spend has got a direct correlation with where you finish in the league and that wasn’t the case ten years ago.
“Such is the force and the power of finance in the Championship and the Premier League is just dictating so much nowadays.
“The game’s changed again because of that. There are teams in this league really spending money and going for it.”
Luton were on the brink of extinction in 2008, until the they were rescued by their current 2020 Board and a money-spinning FA Cup tie with Liverpool.
Jones said: “We have to remember our history and I know everybody, me included, wants to be competitive and wants to do nothing more in this league, but trying to overextend ourselves by overachieving financially nearly cost us a football club a long time ago.
“So, trying to get that balance right is difficult, it’s challenging for everybody here, but we must protect the long-term future of the club.”
Jones was an assistant manager at both Wigan Athletic and Swansea City, when those clubs competed beyond their financial means in the Premier League and Championship, respectively.
But those two clubs are increasingly looking like the exception to the rule that financial muscle dictates success on the pitch.
Jones said: “The one thing I would say about Wigan, we still had the same Premier League money as most, so you could still compete. The Championship isn’t that rich, in terms of the Premier League. It’s night and day really. It’s just being privately financed by football clubs.
“In the Premier League, you get a pot of money and it’s up to you to decide what to do with it.
“I look back at our Swansea days and we were a really, really good side. We picked up a lot of players from abroad because we knew that foreign market. It made us really competitive.
“I just think that, now, how much money you spend has a real impact on where you finish in the league.
“But I genuinely choose not to think like that because what would be the point if I did? Derby is 11 men against 11 men and we’re as capable as they are of winning a football match.”
Asked whether he could ever see a levelling up in the balance between financial clout and football success, Jones said: “If you’re at a football club for a long period of time you can scout differently to everybody else, you can be clever, but the financial fair play was brought in surely for that reason, to make it a level playing field.
“There’s just been ways around certain situations. I’m not going to lie, it’s tough. Everybody in the room could be great managers if they had £30million, £40million, £50million to spend. I’m sure you could select someone in the Championship who you’ve seen is a good player and get them for £10million and give him £50,000 a week.
“That would be very easy, that management. It’s just been challenging for us, certainly this season.”
