Sweet admits Hatters will have to sell players

Town chief executive Gary Sweet has admitted that some players will have to be sold to ensure the club survives the financial fall-out of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Hatters have gone over two months without a game after the Championship season was postponed indefinitely, with their period of inactivity costing a huge sum in match-day revenue.

Speaking to the press yesterday via Zoom, Sweet admitted that the club will now have to look at offloading some of their players to ensure they can operate with a smaller squad going forward.

He said: “Yes, 100 per cent, and to both, absolutely.

“We’ve got to completely reset our expectations going forward in terms of squad sizes and squad budgets.

“We’re the lowest paying club in the Championship, we might still be next season or the season after, but I think every club in the Championship will be looking to do that.

“There are a lot of talks about squad capping, not salary capping for players, but capping budgets on squads and we’d be completely in favour of that.

“I think we are in a position where football, we’ve known for a long time and I’ve been vocal about it, the way football is needs a complete reset.

“We have to take the opportunity, if we’re going to keep the pyramid together, we have to reset this structure, so there isn’t the financial madness that exists in the Championship, where broadly if you dare to make a profit in the Championship, you’re guaranteed a relegation spot, that’s what it means at the moment."

The Hatters had been in fairly decent shape off the pitch before the disruption caused by coronavirus hit and hit hard.

Although the current outlook is gloomy, Sweet did see a glimmer of light if Luton can make it through the year.

He added: "Not that we very often make a profit, we don’t actually, but we might have done this year, I’m talking pennies not hundred of thousands, minute amounts.

“By even existing on selling players, with that and being the lowest paid club, we’ll only just have broken even.

“In this situation at the moment, we haven’t got a hope, so we have to reset our own expectations whether the league does it or not.

“But anything that moves at the moment is up for sale, it literally is a case of what squad we’ve got next season, lets really understand, everything is an asset, everything’s got a price, everything’s available and this is all about having cash in the bank today.

“I look at our longer term forecast, we’re in a great position in two years time, absolutely fantastic, if all of those predictions come true, we just need to get there.

“If we can survive the next 12 months, we’re in a fantastic shape, then we can reset but there’s a lot of clubs thinking the same way."