Livingston boss David Martindale explains ‘points per pound’ budget comments that saw Ange Postecoglou bite back
LIVINGSTON boss David Martindale has opened up on his 'points per pound' comments that caught the attention of Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou last month.
The Lions gaffer has offered an explanation behind his assertion on club TV that "if you were to split the points in to pounds and divide that by the budget we would win the league every season."
In a frank interview, Martindale insisted he KNOWS for a fact that he's operating under the Scottish Premiership's lowest budget.
And that offers a key element to the Livi manager's claims that his side would be sitting top of the table - if it was on that 'points per pound' basis.
He'd spoken openly about his understanding of Celtic's budget in particular, remarking that the Hoops' budget is 35 times as much as what he's working with at Livingston.
After the comments, Parkhead boss Ange Postecoglou couldn't resist a little bite back, quipping:
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"I think he tells us that on a weekly basis, doesn't he?
"So there's no secret there.
"Which is a nice way of him sort of downplaying their prospects and maybe pumping himself up a little bit and there's nothing wrong with that."
The comments cropped up again as Martindale took part in an interview for being named Premiership Manager of the Month for November.
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Martindale explained his theory by pointing to the budgets of other clubs around the league - and showed how that translated into money from the number of points gained.
Speaking to Open Goal, he said: "There's a thing called 'moneyball' right? I know this for a well known fact, there's a manager who's top, top, top in England just now.
"How he was recruited was the money they'd spent on their budget - so let's say in England, £10million - and he managed to get 50 points.
"So for every point he got, it equated to so many pounds. Does that make sense?
"So your budget's points gained.
"If you then flip that in the Scottish Premiership, and we've all got a rough idea of everybody's budgets.
"What you get for finishing 12th in the Premiership is my budget next year. It's guaranteed money because the SPFL are giving you it.
"It's roughly £1.3/1.35m. So Celtic's budget - let's use Celtic and Rangers. They are a wee bit different - what do you think Celtic's budget is? £20m, you think so?
"Let's go £40m, whether it is or we're £5m out or whatever, it's irrelevant.
"Celtic's business model is incredible. They have earned the right to spend X-amount on players. Why would they not? It's not like the MLS where there's a draft and it's probably a little bit fairer but would anyone want that? I don't think I'd want that as a football fan.
"So if you were to divide Celtic and Rangers - so we're not singling out a single team - lets say £35-40m budget.
"Divide that by the points they get and that gets you how much it costs them per point. We all knows this and you can get information through the accounts. If you do that every year it spits out a number.
"You're dividing the points by the budget. The year Rangers won the league, they were along the lines of something like £425,000 per point.
"Rangers won it be quite a wee bit that year, so Celtic's pounds per point was something like £750,000 and if you go down to us, I think St Johnstone had a good year, St Johnstone were like something like £40,000 a point and were were something like £27,000 a point.
"When you look at the pounds for points, why I'm going there is it's not to do with Celtic and Rangers."
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Asked if he had the lowest budget in the league, Martindale said: "By a country mile.
"I know for a fact I've got the lowest budget in the league. I'll counteract that by saying I've had 14 windows at Livingston."
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