BARNSLEY boss Simon Davey laid out £1 million on a player and warned richer Championship rivals: Money does not buy promotion.
Oakwell's first summer signing is striker Iain Hume but Davey's budget, believed to be in the region of £2m, is dwarfed by teams who have exited the Premier League in the last two seasons. The relegation handout from the top flight is currently £20m paid over two campaigns.
Despite those mega amounts, it is QPR who top the Championship rich list. They have financial backers with more wealth than Chelsea overlord Roman Abramovich.
Inevitably bookies are equating spending power with potency on the pitch.
Davey does not necessarily agree. "You've got to look at the three sides who have just come out of the Premiership, Derby, Reading and Birmingham and they've obviously got a head start with their budgets," he said.
"QPR will probably have a budget even bigger than those three.
"And then you have to look at the other clubs who came down the season before. Watford, Sheffield United and Charlton. There are six teams still on parachute payments and they have a head start so you have to be looking at them as favourites to be in and around the promotion spots but this division can throw up anything. The money doesn't guarantee success."
Barnsley and Blackpool are being tipped to struggle in the league by bookmakers and Davey concedes that the competition will be tougher than last term.
"We'll improve again this season but every team does the same. We're bookies favourites to be in the bottom three again, which is quite the norm for us really. We just get on with it," he stressed.
"Forest, Swansea and Doncaster have come into the division with that naivety which comes on the back of promotion. Adrenalin pulls them through at first. Scun-thorpe last year had a fantastic start but it has to be maintained.
"Nobody knows who is going to be strong and who is not going to be strong."
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