Leeds player wages slashed by nearly £2million
By Alex Stevens
Leeds’ annual wage bill has been slashed by nearly £2million, according to the club’s latest set of accounts.
The Yorkshire giants’ total wage bill for the 2015-16 season was £18.1million, which represented 60 per cent of the total turnover of £30.1million.
This was a far lower percentage of turnover than the previous season, when Leeds paid £19.8million in salaries despite revenues of just £24.4million.
The figures have been released in the Championship promotion hopefuls’ financial results for the year ended June 2016.
The headline figure was that Leeds made a loss of £8.9million despite turnover increasing £6.1million to £30.1million.
But the club have also been successful in pruning their wage bill, which is predominantly outlaid to the players, after decreasing the number of full-time playing staff from 52 in the summer of 2015 to 41 a year later.
At the same time, the number of apprentice players, who are more inexpensive, increased from 12 to 18 by June 2016.
Leeds chiefs are bullishly optimistic of turning a profit this season, which has been aided by increased commercial revenue and an average attendance of over 27,000.
Garry Monk’s are currently fourth in the Championship with a tally of 69 points from 38 matches, eight points clear of Fulham in seventh.
They are well placed to secure a spot in the end-of-season play-offs, but automatic promotion is a more distant hope as they are eight points adrift of the two.
In other Leeds transfer news, the club have sealed an out-of-window midfielder transfer.
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