Shrewsbury Town could 'do a Burton'

The Brewers clinched automatic promotion to the Championship where they will play the likes of Aston Villa, Wolves, Leeds and possibly Newcastle and Derby next season.

That success came just little over a year after being promoted with Town from League Two, where they were playing teams such as Accrington Stanley, York and AFC Wimbledon.

Burton attract average crowds of just 4,089 – the fifth smallest gates in League One – while Town's 5,407 puts them 14th, one place higher than Walsall (5,382).

Shrewsbury had the ninth highest budget in the third tier this season but finished 20th, yet still out-performed clubs paying bigger wages such as Blackpool and Doncaster.

Caldwell believes Burton's success offers a realistic blueprint for Salop to follow. He said: "It shows anything is possible in this league.

"Sheffield United are one of the biggest clubs in this league and they haven't made the play-offs.

"Look at Blackpool and Doncaster (both relegated) – they will pay more money to their players than us or Burton but look where they are now.]

"Money doesn't necessarily buy you happiness or a better team. Leicester have shown what can be done. If you spend your money right, you can achieve success."

Manager Micky Mellon has made it clear that Shrewsbury will not be 'first pick' for the cream of League One players this summer.

But Caldwell is confident that by being cuter in the transfer market and with better recruitment than last summer, Town can achieve more with what they have got.

He said: "Look at the Burton model. They haven't got the highest wage budget in the league and they are no bigger than us.

"Micky would be the first to admit that some of the players he brought in that he thought would do better in League One didn't do as well as he thought.

"That's why he changed things around in January and got players who could play in League One and do the club justice."

Caldwell is confident Mellon's list of targets are realistic, and, with more scrutiny on the scouting side, is hopeful of having more hits than misses in the transfer market this summer.

He said: "Micky is very much aware of what we're about and he's been working very hard with Adam Henshall (recruitment administrator).

"You can never always get every piece of recruitment right. The chairman and myself had a chat, then Micky and myself had a discussion and then all three of us met.

"In the last three months we've got more games covered and more of a database of players. There are a lot of players available to sign and it's about making sure we get the right signings.

"A player can score 20 goals a season for one club and then not do it at another club. Hopefully, we have done our due diligence.

"We're looking into a player's social media habits, what they do on Twitter and speaking to people about their background because we're spending quite a lot of money on them."

Town used 35 players this season – including seven loans to make them one of the biggest squads in the division.

And Caldwell stressed Mellon wants the emphasis to be more on quality than quantity next term.

He said: "We've used a lot of players this season. Micky wants a tighter squad next season with better quality and there's no reason why we can't kick on next season."

But Caldwell insisted Shrewsbury won't be stretching beyond their means financially to get to the higher level and put the club's long-term stability at risk.

He said: "Any club needs to be sustainable. "You can look at clubs who have pumped money in and then not been able to pay the players' wages.

"This club is a sustainable business and that's how it will be going forwards. Micky understands we can only pay what we can pay – there's no point this club going into debt or into administration.

"Ten years ago, this club was £750,000 in debt at the old Gay Meadow. We'll do the best we can to get the best team at the Greenhous Meadow so the more people we can get in here, the better.

"We want to give the manager as much money as possible to spend on the team."