Sweet speaks out on club’s plans for the top flight
Town chief executive Gary Sweet has admitted that although manager Rob Edwards will have funds available to shape a squad capable of staying in the Premier League this term, they will be somewhat ‘restricted’ by the amount of off-field work the club are having to do
The Hatters are preparing for their first season in the top flight for almost 30 years after winning the Championship play-off final when beating Coventry City on penalties at Wembley last month.
Although Fankato Daby’s miss from the spot ensured that Luton will receive around £100m in broadcast rights this season, plus another near £75m over the next few years in parachute payments, becoming a top flight club comes with its cost too.
Town are having to spend around £13m on improving Kenilworth Road, while bonuses to players and transfer clauses also come into play, with the Hatters using a quarter of the initial payment to go towards building their new ground at Power Court too.
With that being the case, then it will impact Edwards’ spending power this summer, but Sweet still believes Luton will still have a squad that will be able to compete at the highest level.
Speaking to Five Live Sport, he said: “It’s (transfer budget) meticulously calculated and the one thing we’ll set the boundaries and we won’t go beyond that.
“I think that’s the golden rule here of what our success will be, is having a sensible long term financial plan, strategic plan.
“What we’re doing is frankly we’re not hiding from this.
“We’re having to put 12, 13 million in the stadium.
“There’s always a few liabilities you’ve got like bonuses and little sums of money you might give to other clubs on contingent transfer fees, things like that, so you’re probably into 20, 25 by that time.
“We’re putting a good 25 million chunk of the first year into our new stadium, so actually all of a sudden you’re whittling down and you’ve almost got half of your guaranteed income from broadcast rights going to something else, going to effectively infrastructure, building the foundations for the long term future.
“So our budget will be somewhat restricted by what is remaining, but we still believe we can be competitive with that.”
With Town having a number of players who have been with the club since their days in League Two, giving one of them, Luke Berry a new contract last week week, Sweet didn’t think the squad that had got them into the promised land needed an entire overhaul.
However, there will definitely be a number of new additions made to bolster the current personnel, as he continued: “It’s actually something we’re wrestling with constantly going through this.
“We are consummate long term planners, we look at planning for the football club five, 10 years ahead actually, rather than five, 10 minutes, which a lot of people do.
“So we certainly look at those parachute distributions going forward, looking at how we can use them, manage them for now, but what players you stick with, going through the process and this is the fourth time we’ve done this under the same kind of ownership.
“We firmly believe that if a group of players are good enough to get you there, they’re generally good enough to keep you there.
“What we always need to do is top up with a little bit of extra quality, depending on what division it is, like we’ve done in the Championship for example.
“We added a little bit of extra athleticism and this time round we got to add a little bit of technical ability to our squad and those are the things we’re really focusing on.
“We’ll probably spend a little bit of money, not too much, just a little bit of money, but really keep everyone else grounded and keep the momentum we’ve had over the last couple of years.”
Although rebuilding the Bobbers Stand is taking up the majority of the attention for the club’s hierarchy, with Town having around seven weeks to complete the project in time for their opening match against Burnley on August 19, Sweet wants Edwards himself to busy himself on matters regarding the squad.
He added: “You involve your manager to a certain degree but what you want is for him to focus on football on that player recruitment angle.
“For him to be aware of what we’re doing, but focus on player recruitment, and that is the biggest thing.
“Despite we’re rebuilding a stand, the biggest challenge for us is to get the right players in.”
