LET'S make no mistake, the financial crisis Wanderers are in is of their own making.

It's not down to financial fair play, parachute payments or any of the other myriad of excuses football clubs churn out when they find they've got bills they can't pay.

It's down to getting the first and most basic business rule wrong – spending more than you earn.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I've been predicting eventual financial meltdown at Wanderers for 15 years.

While some were buying the theory that Wanderers' debt was manageable, I didn't.

And as the debt rose from £30million to £40m then £60, £90m, £120, £160 and finally to £172m in the most recent accounts my view never changed.

I'm also worried about the club down the road at Gigg Lane.

Bury FC's debt went up from around half a million pounds to £2m in the year up to May 2014 and it wouldn't surprise me if it's much higher when the next set of accounts are submitted by next February.

Back to Wanderers, when you have to call in an insolvency expert in Trevor Birch to get you out of a mess you have to ask yourself how you got into it.

The years of doing well in the Premier League were all well and good from a football point of view. But throughout that time Wanderers were living well beyond their means to fund it.

People said it was okay because it was the owner Eddie Davies's own money. But it wasn't okay.

Debt is debt whichever way you cut it and debt is bad in football. Just ask Leeds United and Portsmouth – two other clubs who sent an SOS to Mr Birch and who have never recovered from their years of massive overspending.

Who wakes up in the morning and thinks 'I know what I'll do today, I'll go and get some debt'?

Okay if you have to and you pay it back quickly, but to let it remain, linger and eat away at your football club until it finally damages it almost beyond repair is no way to go about business.

As Wanderers struggle at the bottom of the second tier with no money to improve the team and praying for a fairy godmother to magic them out of this mess you have to ask yourself if those good times in the Premier League were worth it.

The answer is up to each individual who has lived through it all.

For me it's no. I would rather football clubs live within their means and play at their level rather than risk serious damage by throwing money at it that they don't know they will be able to pay back in the future.

Whoever owns Wanderers in the future would do well to treat the last 15 years as a cautionary tale.

Overspend at your peril, and remember, this isn't your club.

It belongs to the town and its people, you're just the trustees. Don't betray that trust.