Town boss Mick McCarthy says he was quote some “mind-boggling” wages which shocked even him while looking to add to his squad during the January transfer window.
The Blues manager says he and owner Marcus Evans found some of the players they were targeting on loan beyond their reach wages-wise.
"We were looking but you see the state of the transfer window and I have to say some of the wages that I was quoted for people was just mind-boggling, and we’re not going to pay them, so let’s just cut to the quick,” he said.
"There’s no point in saying, ‘Well why…?’. I’ve had this before when people have said, ‘Why doesn’t [Marcus] just have a go and get that [player in]?’.
"Well actually no, because it would compromise everything else that we’ve ever done, everybody else in the dressing room. And I’m not convinced they’d make that much of a difference.
"We were looking but there were just none there, well aside from the one I’ve taken, Muzzy Carayol, and I’m delighted with him.
"Barry Cotter is to work with and hopefully we’ll get a first-team player but Muzzy will no doubt be in the squad.”
He says the market at Championship level has become hugely inflated over the last couple of seasons.
"It’s beyond what we will pay for some players, there’s no doubt,” he added.
"And I get that. There has to be a scale wherever it’s at. There are a lot of teams who have got the parachute payments.
"I was asking the other day about Sunderland, they’ve got £42 million, £36 million and is it £19 million? They’ve got £90-something million over three years. Wow!
"What have I spent over the last five years? Three million, is it? What have I brought in, £14 million? All right, I didn’t sign Cressy, but nevertheless, I’m not sure he was playing when I came, he got in the team and we sold him.
"Mings, Cressy and Murph. It’s comparing apples and pears. And I’ve always said, sat here, I’ve got no problem with that at all because working at the level I do I do it very, very well. We do. I’m not going to give you any figures [on wages he was quoted], but even I’ve gone, ‘No, really?’.”
The type of wages previously seen only in the top flight? "Yes. When I was at Wolves in the Premier League that kind of wage, 20s, 30s [grand a week]. Divide them into three and we’ll have three players for that money.
"But that’s all right, I get that. And then what we get with our lads and what they give me is brilliant, and I love them for that.
"And, do you know what, I always say to them as well, ‘Play well, get yourself a move, you go and get yourself 20 or 30 grand a week if it can happen’. And good luck to them because they give everything for me.”
McCarthy says there’s balance to be found when spending a few million to augment a squad without impacting on the team dynamic.
"It can have a really significant effect if it’s the right players that are brought in,” he reflected.
"And I go back to when I was at Wolves and we’d finished in the play-offs, then we finished seventh, just missed out, and then the following year [new owner] Steve Morgan came in and, fair play, he backed me, we took Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Christophe Berra.
"Sylvan scored 45 goals in 18 months, I think it was, and Christophe was just a rock at the back. And we were a better for that significant at the time - still people were spending more money - but it was significant investment on our part, which we hadn’t been doing. I guess at the right time it still can be done.”
He says that with the Championship having moved on significantly in the last few seasons, the types of signing which were key to his success at Sunderland and Wolves might not be there any more.
"I think the league’s got better, there’s better teams, there are better players, maybe there are better managers, different ideas, different ways of playing,” he continued.
"This league has certainly got better, the Championship, since I took the Sunderland job in 2003, and equally the Wolves job in 2006.
"And maybe there were more players around that I could get, the Gary Breens, Dean Whiteheads, Liam Lawrences when I was at Sunderland.
"I don’t know if they're still around that we could sort of 'nick', that were young and up and coming and you could galvanise a team. Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly at Wolves. I don’t know whether they’re still there, that type of player.”
McCarthy’s successor Paul Jewell said he regretted not pushing for more funds during his time in charge after leaving Portman Road.
"I bet he did,” McCarthy said. "Just as I’ve asked. But if it’s not there, then you don’t stamp your feet and pull your hair out and throw your toys out of the pram, you get on with what you’ve got and make the best of what you’ve got.
"Marcus is not doing it to spite me or spite anybody else, it’s because that is what he wants to do with the club. It’s his club, good luck to him, that’s fine, and I adhere to that and do the best I can.”
Can the sort of approach which brought him success at Sunderland and Wolves still work? "Still doing it, aren’t we? Still doing it.”
But is there a limit to how far it can take a team these days? "I’ll keep hoping we can and keep going for that, hoping we can and striving for that.
"It might be that at the right time if there’s somebody that you can get that you know is going to make you better and you can afford it, then if at Christmas you’re in the top eight, to get somebody that will get you into the top six, that is the time.
"And if you can do that and that makes a real difference, then that would be a really good investment.
"But if you’re mid-table and you’re not going to go anywhere, you’ve got to be conscious that you don’t upset the applecart with wages.
"You don’t want three or four players in here that are suddenly earning significantly more than everybody else when all those others have been the soldiers for me, the warriors, scrapping and fighting and playing for the last four or five years and suddenly somebody swans in here and he’s on twice as much. It tends to have a big effect.
"I saw Steve Cotterill talking about that with his Birmingham side. And he seems to have sorted that out. I watched them on Tuesday night [when they beat Sunderland 3-1] and they’re not going down, that’s for sure.”