Bloom said in his xmas missive that he had planned to reduce the playing budget by 6%, but Barber's good work, etc, meant that it was staying the same as last year. This leads on to the question of whether all of this has been spent (you mention all the players coming in, but you could equally...
How come? This is the amount we've lost over the past two seasons. Barber keeps on saying that he's made savings of £2m in operating costs since then. Also factor in that gate receipts have gone up by a few thousand (with all those extra pies and pints sold), we have better sponsorship deals...