Football finance guru Kieran Maguire rates Norwich City one of the best-run clubs in the Championship.

The author and co-host of The Price of Football podcast delivered a health check on the division as a guest on the latest episode of the Second Tier podcast.

Maguire, who estimated City owed £96m in their 2022/23 published accounts – a figure that excluded a player trading surplus last summer and a final parachute payment - believes newly-relegated Luton and City lead the way.

“I would say Luton Town,” when asked to pick out the best-run club. “You only have to look at their history. For Luton to have come the route they have done it without spending large amounts of money, and with a small stadium at Kenilworth Road, in terms of generating matchday revenues and hospitality. It is a testament to Gary Sweet and his team of having a vision, having a strategy and reaping the rewards.

“But if you were to take them out of this then I would say Norwich City. I think they are professional in the way they are run. A safe pair of hands in that they’ve got good, close links with the community, the pricing structure is right and when I have met some of their staff I have been impressed with their level of professionalism.

“If you are talking a text book ‘yo yo’ club they are probably the best. They have not over-extended themselves when they have been promoted to the Premier League, and when they come back to the Championship they have always tended to be in that top eight, competing for top six.”

City's next set of accounts, for the year ending June 2024, will be published later in the year. Player trading remains a key part of the Canaries' strategy under the direction of sporting director Ben Knapper.

For Maguire, that is an essential element for every Championship club.

“The average losses in the Championship are £400,000 a week, so that either has to come from the owners or player sales,” he said. “I think we described the Championship previously as the ‘clown car’ of European football. You’ve got all of those clubs changing position every year, you’ve got all those incentives to over-spend, and not learn any lessons from history.

“But when I look at the financial situation there are none which are terrifying. I don’t see what I would refer to as a ‘basket case’, in terms of the Championship is concerned. I honestly don’t think there is a ’problem child’, and I am saying that in the context of average losses of £400,000 per week.

"My concern would be if in two or three months you are having this conversation and an owner is no longer at a club that was being subsidized in that way, then that is a problem.”