It’s well known that the sales of Moises Caicedo and the Albion’s third-choice goalkeeper to Toad Boehly’s Merry Men were not included in the record £122m post-tax profits announced by the Club recently.
So will those profits (the highest ever of a Premier League Club) be surpassed in 2023/24? The answer is ‘it depends’…
Positives
The Albion will be booking a profit of about £125 million from the above player sales (Caicedo’s add-on fees are unlikely to kick in unless Paul Barber has sneaked in a bonus for Chelsea finishing 10th this season).
The Albion’s Europa League adventure is likely to generate about £20m in prize money, and the four home games at the Amex will contribute another £5m or so in ticket sales and merchandise. All of which sounds great, but for every ying there is always a yang etc.
The Howevers
Last season’s player sale profits, and the departure of GPott to you-know-who, was worth in the region of £145 million to the Albion. This will put the club about £20m down overall in terms of departing player/coach profits, unless Gully is poached by the Stamford Bridge Headhunters and Tony Bloom holds out for a big fee.
Costs have risen. João Pedro and Carlos Baleba cost an estimated £56m between them, record fees for the club. The amortisation charge for these two players alone will be about £11m for the season, and that’s before the acquisitions of Bart Verbruggen, Igor and Valentin Barco etc are factored in too.
The Albion’s contribution to Ansu Fati’s wages will cost about £6m, whilst new contracts and bonuses for other players, on the back of individual performances and qualifying for the Europa League, will kick in too.
Being in European competition has been brilliant for Albion fans but, as we all know, it has cost a lot of money to attend those matches. That has also been the case for the club, and players probably won’t have been flying via Edinburgh and then getting a coach from Milan to save costs getting to a match in Rome.
A repeat of last season’s incredible sixth-placed Premier League finish is looking a stretch for the Albion now. With a difficult run-in and a congested mid-table, the club could finish as low as 13th, and with each position in the Premier League table worth just over £3m, this will mean a further decrease on last season’s profitability.
Summary
So whilst it is likely the Albion will report another set of excellent financial results for 2023/24 compared to the rest of the Premier League, another open bus tour down Madiera Drive with Paul Barber holding the coveted ‘Record Premier League Post Tax Profits’ Trophy (and of course we can sing to Palace ‘You’ll Never Sing That’) should not be taken for granted.
Images courtesy of Reuters
Co-host of the successful Price of Football podcast and lecturer in football finance at the University of Liverpool, Kieran is Mr Football Finance.
