“Everything in life has a budget. At the start of the season, Lee Charnley and I will sit down and I will say ‘I need X,Y and Z’ for the projects we want to try and do. This is the priority and I’m going to go as far down that list as I can get and if I can keep on going down that list, then I’ll keep on going.
“I try to get as much as I can done but I also know there is a limit on what we can spend each year - if want to do other thing as well, it’s not just my department, we all get a fair crack at it. In the last 10 years we’ve always worked with the principle that we want to spend a sensible amount of money each year to keep on top of the stadium rather than let it go into rack and ruin and knock on the door and say we need X amount to put it right - because that is what will happen.
“If you don’t maintain and look after it, it ends up being a massive cost rather than just an upkeep cost - and people will not use it.”
We must stress in the article with the Chronicle, Rutherford does state several of things his team do which goes unnoticed.