Liverpool made a pre-tax loss of £20m in the year from August 2009 to July 2010. This was the last full year of the Hicks and Gillett regime. The wage bill was in excess of £100m which is too high for a club that will probably be deprived of Champions League football once again.
Liverpool made a pre-tax loss of £20m in the year from August 2009 to July 2010. This was the last full year of the Hicks and Gillett regime. The wage bill was in excess of £100m which is too high for a club that will probably be deprived of Champions League football once again.
Admittedy, it is well behind the wage bills at Chelsea (£172m), Manchester City (£133m) and Manchester United (£131m). The total is just behind that of Arsenal (£110m) but well ahead of that at Spurs (£67m).
Commercial revenues did increase from £177m to £184m, a figure that does not include the £20m a year sponsorship from Standard Chartered. A £23m profit was made on player trading. Fenway Sports Group (FSG) wiped out £200m of the club’s debt when they acquired it last October. This has cut interest payments from £17.7m in the reporting year to about £3m.
The wage bill will not prevent an active summer in the transfer market. However, there will be an attempt to move out those high earners who have failed to make a significant impact. Joe Cole, who earns in excess of £100,000 a week, as well as Milan Jovanovic and Paul Konchesky are likely to be the first made available for transfer as an effort is made to make the squad more cost effective.