What Sheffield Wednesday boss thinks of the likes of big-spending Ipswich Town as League One riches swell

The ladder of teams operating at third tier level in recent seasons has counted some of the biggest clubs in the country – with Wednesday of course included in that number.

That increase in profile has brought with it an increase of budgets and the pulling power of the division is bigger than ever before, Moore told The Star.

Now 48, Moore played at every level of English football apart from the third tier but has spent the majority of his management career there, with the best part of two campaigns spent with both Doncaster Rovers and Wednesday.

The financial landscape of the league has changed even since his arrival at Rovers in 2019, with teams such as Wednesday attracting Championship-proven players and Ipswich Town having shelled out seven-figure fees for three different players this season.

“Look, the money is there now,” Moore said.

“When I arrived in League One a few seasons ago I said the division would never be the same because of the level of clubs that are in there.

“Some of the clubs that have been in League One, we’re talking clubs that have been at the very highest level this country has to offer.

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“As you can see, what some teams are spending has been highly documented. That’s the figure, the level of player. And it shows the level of League One and the standard of football now, the level of the managers and coaches. Everything has gone up ten-fold form when I first knew it.

“It’s great for the league and it’s a great advert. As we’ve seen, there are clubs in League One that have beaten teams above us when we’ve been pitted together in cup competitions.

“It shows the competitiveness of the league. And from the outside looking in, it’s very different on what it’s perceived to be when you’re competing in it week-in, week-out.”

Though the presence of the so-called bigger clubs is nothing new – Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Wolves, Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers are among the clubs to have dropped into the third tier in the last few seasons – the number of those clubs there at one time is bigger than ever before.

Of League One’s current top six, five are former Premier League clubs and leaders Plymouth Argyle are surely one of the biggest never to have done so.

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“It’s all a knock-on from the very highest league,” Moore continued. “There’s the chance you don’t get it right when you drop out of the Premier League and you end up in League One. All of a sudden, you wake up in the division and that level of competition is there now.

“Reputation does not matter one jot. History, size and nature of the club doesn’t matter. It’s about proving your consistency and getting the results to warrant yourselves being up there.

“In the two leagues higher there’s a fairly typical way of setting teams up but in this league there’s a very different set-up. There are teams that want to play, there’s teams that want to play a percentage game. It tests you week-in and week-out.”