Micky Moore: Overspending last season created highest budget in 137-year Shrewsbury history

Salop had a successful League One campaign finishing 12th – their second-highest in 33 years year under Steve Cotterill.

But director of football Moore has revealed their spending last season was not sustainable and saying the club 'cannot operate at that level'.

Moore said: "The budget is exactly the same as it was last year. But last year there was a massive overspend. The overspend was not sustainable.

"The club could not and cannot operate at that level. I am not going to go into figures as that would be massively unfair.

"The volume of money that was being spent was the highest this club, in 137 years it has ever spent.

"That isn't taking anything away from last year.

"The football club is still trying to get over Covid, it is having an impact on the game it really is. It is going to take a bit of time to get over that. The one thing the chairman has always tried to do here is create a stable and sustainable model.

"When the club first came back into League One in 2015, it has been there ever since. From that season in League One there were six teams.

"Bury, they do not exist anymore. There was Scunthorpe who ended up in the Conference North.

"There was Oldham, Rochdale, Southend and Chesterfield who are all now in the National League.

"This football club has sustained League One football but last year was not sustainable. I would hate to think where the football club would have ended up if it had stayed on that path.

"Right here, right now. We have a sustainable model and one that is going to hopefully keep us in League One this year."

At the start of the summer, the club released a statement in which Roland Wycherley wrote about his concerns with spending and Town's financial position.

Moore says the spending that occurred last season could not continue but said with Wycherley in charge they will be in a secure financial position.

He said: "The accounts will come out throughout the year, and the fans will be able to see where the club is financially.

"The chairman will not let this football club go like other football clubs. He will not allow that to happen – he will not do that.

"Like I say Covid has hit the reserves of this football club, and whatever was left of the reserves and whatever was left of those reserves has been eaten up in an overspend from last season.

"It could not continue. The football club, while the chairman is in place will always be in good and safe, reliable hands.

"There is no quick fix. The budget that we have this year is sustainable. This club can cope with this budget year on year."