Chief Executive Brain Caldwell: Why Shrewsbury Town won’t go overboard on wages

Town are one of the most financially stable sides in League One with the club debt free and also able to call on cash reserves.

Nevertheless, they have seen some high-profile players leave this summer after being offered more money elsewhere.

Abu Ogogo and Junior Brown both left Montgomery Waters Meadow to join Coventry, while fellow free agent Alex Rodman also departed for Bristol Rovers.

But while Caldwell was frustrated to see those players go, he refuses to recklessly spend the club’s cash – something he and chairman Roland Wycherley had the chance to do when they sold land to supermarket giant Lidl.

“You have got to live within your means,” Caldwell said. “It would have been easy for me and the chairman to take the Lidl money and throw it into one season.

“But what happens after that? We need to look after the long-term future of this club.

“Fans would just think why did we have that one great season? And the answer would be because we spent all the money.

“People then drift away because the team isn’t as good. We showed last year you don’t have to have the biggest budget in the division. It doesn’t necessarily buy success.

“Most of the clubs around us had far, far bigger budgets but we went toe-to-toe with Wigan and Blackburn.

“You talk to some other clubs in the league that finished mid-table or below, even some of the ones that finished in the bottom four – Northampton and Bury had much bigger budgets than us. If somebody said to me if you spend X amount more I’ll guarantee you’ll be in the play-offs or top two, then we would do it.

“But nobody can guarantee it.”

Caldwell says he can understand why Ogogo, Brown and Rodman opted to leave. But he insisted a strong wage structure is key for a team to be successful.

“Clubs have offered players money that is way beyond our budget,” the chief executive continued. “But we have got a wage structure here that we will always keep too.

“It’s really important to us the players don’t feel somebody is earning a lot more than everyone else. That’s fair to the players. It’s important in the dressing room and part of the success we had last season was because of that.

“If you have a wage structure and you keep to it, it doesn’t cause friction in the dressing room.

“I’ve heard – supposedly – what some of the players that have left will be earning. And the money they have been offered, you can’t fault them for wanting more.

“Obviously it’s disappointing for John (Askey), myself and the chairman but that is football.”

With Shrewsbury on such a stable footing, Caldwell admits it does frustrate both him and the chairman seeing other clubs spend more freely.

“It’s frustrating at times when you see the debts a club amasses and then they go and offer high, high salaries and outbid you,” he added. “They have got massive debts whereas we are very well run financially.

“And we are always looking at ways to improve our turnover.

“We try to reinvest everything.

We are working hard to generate more money so we can throw it back into the wage bill.

“The chairman always wants to put more in because he is a fan. Sometimes his heart rules his head. And sometimes you just have to stop and think.

“When he came here the club was in £750,000 worth of debt and the stadium was Gay Meadow.

“You look at the facilities we’ve got now with the stadium and the training ground, it’s fantastic. I can’t praise the chairman and the job he’s done here highly enough.”

Our interview with Brian Caldwell continues in tomorrow's Shropshire Star.