David Martindale admits he knows what Celtic and Rangers are batting at in terms of budgets and that he can't compete financially,.
The Livingston boss has watched the Lions continue to disrupt the historical top four in the Scottish Premiership with the Tony Macaroni Arena outfit some way behind third-place Hearts but keeping the likes of Aberdeen and Hibs at bay as they push for what would be a historic European spot. Martindale's men have a habit too of taking points from both sides of the Glasgow divide.
But in terms of financials the Lions boss insisted Livi would be top of the league last month on a 'points per pound' basis as he explained his reasoning behind the system and admits his men are batting with the lowest amount of cash in the whole division.
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He told Open Goal: "That's the thing for me can I compete with Celtic and Rangers financially? Not in a million years. But can I do all of this as well as them? I can.
"I might not have the same resources but I can do all the same things it doesn't cost because it is hard work on our part."
He added: "There's a top manager in England now - I won't name the club but for a well known fact a manager was recruited on the money they had spent on their budget - let's say in England £10m and he managed to get 50 points. So for every point he got it equated to so many pounds.
"If you flip that in the Scottish league and we all have a rough idea of everyone's budgets. What you get for finishing 12th in the Premier League is my budget next year. It's guaranteed money because the SPFL are giving you it. It's roughly £1.3m for us so just using Celtic and Rangers - they are a wee bit different - what do you think Celtic's budget is? £20m you think so?
"I genuinely don't know but I know what certain players are on and Celtic and Rangers have earned the right to do that. Celtic's business model is incredible. They have earned the right to spend x-amount on players. Why would they not?
"So if you were to divide Celtic and Rangers lets say £35-40m budget with the points they get that gives you how much it costs them per point. We all knows this and you can get information through the accounts. If you do that every year it spits out a number.
"The year Rangers won the league they were something like £425,000 per point...Celtic's that season was something like £750,000 and if you come down to us it was about £27,000. By a country mile [have the lowest budget in the league]. I know for a fact I've got the lowest budget."
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