Big spenders will not affect any Hatters recruitment drive

Disappointment in Saturday’s play-off final means that the Hatters will have to spend a third-straight year in the Conference.

Although they will not be blowing their cheque book to buy success, managing director Gary Sweet believes Luton are well placed to score automatic promotion.

He said: “The game of football is not just about throwing money at it.

“Crawley did it and succeeded but they could have done it and failed. The nightmare scenario would be to throw an extra couple of million at something and for it to fail.

“We certainly will be working better to make sure we give it a better shot next season.

“ I don’t think we will be in a worse condition (financially).

“Our budget doesn’t necessarily need to be assessed either.

“I believe we have the nucleus of a great team.

“It is missing some components but there’s a great spirit and those elements we don’t want to lose.”

While he admitted it was impossible to tell if another team in the Blue Square Bet Premier may be planning to do a ‘Crawley’, Sweet asserted that it wouldn’t affect what the Hatters do anyway.

He added: “This time last year no-one had an inkling what Crawley were planning.

“If we hear Fleetwood were throwing £3million at it or none of the teams were, it doesn’t affect the way we would go about it. We won’t change our game plan regardless of what other people do.”