Sweet: We won't compromise our budget to win promotion

Luton Town won't put themselves at risk financially in a bid to win promotion from League Two at the fourth time of asking this term.
Hatters chief executive Gary SweetHatters chief executive Gary Sweet
Hatters chief executive Gary Sweet

The Hatters came desperately close last season, knocked out of the play-offs against Blackpool, and have moved swiftly in the transfer market to bring in experienced midfielder Alan McCormack from Brentford and former Czech Republic international goalkeeper Marek Stech.

Although determined to ensure manager Nathan Jones has a squad capable of finishing in the top three this term, Town chief executive Gary Sweet confirmed it won’t come at a cost to the long term future of the club.

He said: “We’re not compromising our budget, I’ll say that now.

“Because we haven’t finished yet and when people see the things that are going on, we won’t ever compromise on our budget.

“What I mean by that is we won’t overstretch ourselves so it puts a risk on the football club, or we have to put ticket prices up, they’re always the two things, it won’t do that.

“We’re absolutely sound financially. We’re a better club now than we probably have been, I would say ever, certainly since we came in.”

McCormack spent the last three seasons in the Championship and could have joined a host of League One clubs before opting to head to Kenilworth Road on a two year deal.

Although he struggled with injuries last year, Sweet is confident that the medical department, who were short-listed for the Football Medical Association’s League Two Medical & Science Team of the Year award, is equipped to ensure Town will see the best of of him this term

On his arrival, Sweet said: “It’s a real sign of intent and we’re being hungry.

“We’ve got very good medical staff, more importantly the fitness conditioning, sport science, analytical staff that we’ve got are better than ever.

“We’re learning all the time, but actually we’re really quite polished now, so we back them that when we bring in a more experienced player who had a few soft tissue injuries last season, we’ve got to feel very confident ourselves about managing his games.

“He won’t play 46 games in the season, but we’ll get most of the season out of him and it will give opportunities for the likes of Tyreeq (Bakinson) and Pelly (Ruddock-Mpanzu) maybe in that position to compete.

“So we’re delighted with that one, that’s a cracking one.”

Sweet also revealed that the new training facilities at the Brache are playing a huge part when it comes to attracting players of a higher calibre to the club.

He added: “We’re stronger, we’re more solid, we’ve got a better foundation and when we talk to agents and players and even other clubs, who want their players to move on to a good environment, we talk about the planning applications, we talk about the training ground.

“When we bring players into the training ground, they don’t want to leave.

“The Brache, a lot of money was spent on that, but this is where we start to reap the rewards.

“Because they come in there and think ‘I can’t see myself training anywhere else, I don’t want to consider another football club in this league or the one up, because this environment is Championship standard.’