Kelvin Thomas: Lower divisions hit by 'salary inflation', says Northampton chairman
- Published
Kelvin Thomas was previously chairman of Oxford United before taking over Northampton in 2015
Northampton Town chairman Kelvin Thomas expects the team to be competitive this season despite "crazy times" financially in the lower divisions.
They won promotion by finishing third in League Two last season.
But Thomas said finding new players was tougher because of "significant salary inflation" from 12 months ago.
"A player doesn't become a different player just because you're paying them more money," he told BBC Radio Northampton's Cobblers Show.
"As an ownership, we're not going to put the club at risk by paying a little bit more for a player when you're not necessarily getting much more quality."
Earlier this month, head coach Jon Brady said richer clubs had put the transfer market for Leagues One and Two "out of kilter" because of the amount of money they are prepared to spend.
Asked how much some clubs were willing to pay in wages compared to last year, Thomas said: "At the start of the window a lot more, probably double, but ... we do understand that as the window goes on those demands drop a little bit.
"The bigger clubs that are willing to pay what we would consider serious money, they can only take a certain amount of players, so other players that may have been demanding those sort of wages get a bit further down the road and suddenly realise they may not get that and start looking around at some of their other options."
Huddersfield Town striker Tyreece Simpson joined Northampton on a season-long loan on Wednesday, their fourth summer signing.
Thomas continued: "A couple of the players we have brought in have come in because they want to play in League One, [and have] probably taken a bit less.
"We've turned down offers for players where they would get paid more money in League Two.
"We won't try and compete financially with Derby and Reading etc, we won't, but we couldn't compete with Stockport financially last year, but we did compete on the pitch.
"There will be teams in our league this year that will spend significantly more money and that's just a reality of life, but we know we'll compete.
"We've got a spirit here, a group of players we believe in. We think we've added some quality to that and we'll give it a go."