Livingston boss David Martindale knows every penny counts at the club.
And the gaffer has consistently found a way to get the most out of his budget - to the extent that per pound spent on player wages Martindale insists his side come out on top every single year over tomorrow’s opponents Celtic.
With Livi’s wage budget being around £1.3m, Martindale says a ‘conservative’ estimate is that the Celts’ boast a budget ‘30 to 35’ times bigger - and some Hoops stars earn the equivalent of the entire first team squad at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
He concedes, of course, that the Parkhead side have earned the right to have that sort of budget and hailed their ‘fantastic’ business model. He also knows points per pound doesn’t win you trophies
But it’s a stat he’s proud of and one, he says, that got Graham Potter the Brighton gig and is being looked at more closely in this day and age.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s clash, Martindale commented: “What’s their budget? We are £1.3m. I know one player at Celtic who is on the same as our collective weekly wage. That’s where you are and you’d be foolish to go toe to toe with them. It would be like racing a Ferrari with a Renault Clio. You are going to lose so you need to find a way to win the race.
“Ange was a wee bit vocal on it and Gio too in terms of budgets and opponents they were coming up against in Europe. Real Madrid are perhaps around eight times Celtic’s. Napoli, Ajax, Liverpool probably about eight or nine times Rangers’ budget.
“If you want to go into the finer detail of Livingston and Celtic let’s be very conservative here and say it’s 30-35 times my budget.
“I don’t mean that in a negative way to either club. They have earned the right to spend that money. I can only be envious of Ange and the money he has to spend but envious of Celtic as a whole because their business model is fantastic.”
He added: “Graham Potter got the job at Brighton based on pounds per points.
“They looked at the Championship when Potter was at Swansea. What he spent and the points he accumulated was one of the biggest in Europe and he got the job at Brighton.
“There is a Livingston fan who puts up pounds per points, and there is probably a wee bit of an assumption in there in terms of other team’s budgets, but I don’t think it’s a million times off.
“Every year I think Livingston come out on top. Last year it was £25,000 per point. I think Celtic were around roughly £300,000 to £400,000 per point.
“For me that doesn’t win you leagues or games of football but it shows you how far we’ve come as a club.”
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