BUDGET CLAIM IS NOT TRUE, INSISTS COOK
PAUL Cook has hit back at claims that runaway leaders Chesterfield have the biggest budget in the National League.
The Spireites are a massive 23 points clear at the top of the table and on the verge of returning to the Football League after a six-year absence.
But while Cook boasts a squad of players that his rivals can only dream of, the former Ipswich Town, Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic boss insists their envy is misguided given he has a smaller squad than some others in Non-League’s top-flight.
“It has frustrated me this season when people have said we have thrown money at it,” Cook told 1866 Sport.
“I think the bosses at the club will tell you that our wage bill is lower this year than it was last year.
“We are not the highest wage bill in the league. But everyone just wants to say ‘oh Chesterfield has thrown money at it’.
“We have two strikers at the club -– (Will) Grigg and (Joe) Quigley – go and look at how many some of the other clubs have.
“Go and look at the wages they are paying. I just think throughout our club we have recruited well.”
Cook inherited a over-subscribed squad beset by long-term injuries when he returned to Chesterfield in February 2022, now the 58-year-old believes he has found the right formula – and without breaking the bank.
“I could not understand where we had got to as a club,” reflected Cook, who replaced James Rowe in the dugout.
“I just felt our standards as a football club had dropped for whatever reasons. The quicker I could implement changes that I believed were the right ones the better.
“I have had the full support of the board above me and I think a lot of other managers today don’t get that and I think that is sad.”