BRENDAN Flood doesn’t mind admitting Brian Laws’ ability to operate on a tight budget had a big appeal to Burnley.

The Clarets are fully expected to spend the least in the Premier League – both on wages and transfers – this season.

A salary cap of £15,000 was set soon after promotion.

But Flood believes such prudence is nothing to be ashamed of, especially in the light of Manchester United revealing a staggering debt of £700million this week.

In fact, he believes their financial structure could be the envy of the division, and he has backed Laws to work wonders with it.

“The world is coming round to us. You only have to read every day about Manchester United being £700m in debt, Liverpool £300m, Portsmouth, Hull City ... Everton are £65m in debt. All of these clubs are scratching their heads and thinking where are they going to go?” said Flood.

“They’re all going to have to start cutting their wages and cutting their players. We can nudge up the other way slightly, but still do it our way. I think we’re being independent minded about it. I think we’re doing it well. We’re brighter than the others I think in the way we’re looking at it.

“We feel that the familiarity with the Championship enables Brian to bring the better players out of the Championship potentially into the Premier League.

“Also at Sheffield Wednesday he’s had to beg, steal and borrow off the top six – he’s loaned players and so on. That isn’t going to do us any harm, is it? If we’ve got to borrow off Manchester United, Manchester, Arsenal, Chelsea – that’s not a problem. I think that can help us to make use of his relationships to better our playing squad.”

And Burnley know first-hand how persuasive Owen Coyle’s successor can be, after he talked summer target