Paul Cook dismisses claims Chesterfield have biggest budget in National League

The Spireites are 23 points clear at the top of the table and are closing in on ending their six-year stay in the fifth-tier in stunning style.

Town could break a number of club and league records between now and the end of the season, but some people have tried to pour cold water on their success.

Although the Blues do have one of the highest budgets in the division, Cook is adamant that they do not top that particular league. He points to the fact that Chesterfield do not have a big squad compared to others, something he has never been keen on.

“It has frustrated me this season when people have said we have thrown money at it,” he told 1866 Sport. “I think the bosses at the club will tell you that our wage bill is lower this year than it was last year.

"We are not the highest wage bill in the league. But everyone just wants to say ‘oh Chesterfield has thrown money at it.’ We have two strikers at the club - (Will) Grigg and (Joe) Quigley - go and look at how many some of the other clubs have. Go and look at the wages they are paying. I just think throughout our club we have recruited well.”

When Cook returned to Chesterfield in February 2022, he inherited a side riddled with long-term injuries and a bloated squad. But that is not the case now, with the Spireites simply having two players for each position, a nice balance of youth and experience, and very few in the treatment room.

Cook said: “I could not understand where we had got to as a club. I just felt our standards as a football club had dropped for whatever reasons. The quicker I could implement changes that I believed were the right ones the better. I have had the full support of the board above me and I think a lot of other managers today don’t get that and I think that is sad.”