Kieran Maguire salutes Southampton as ‘very interesting’ £113m news confirmed
The latest official figures show that Southampton have “very tight control” of their wage expenditure.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Saints’ accounts for the 2020-21 financial year.
Southampton, who announced their results on Wednesday (23 March), recorded a net loss of £13.7million as turnover increased to £157.2m.
Also detailed in the accounts was the £113m the St Mary’s outfit spent on player and staff costs for the year.
The Saints were one of a handful of top-flight clubs to agree to wage cuts for first-team players and coaching staff during the Covid-hit campaign.
Maguire pulled the data and revealed that they have spent broadly similar across each of the last five seasons.
“The very interesting thing is that Southampton now appear to have tight control over their wages,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“They were £113m in 2017, £113m in 2018, £115m in 2019, £114m in 2020 and £113m in 2020-21.
“So they have flatlined in the last five years, which is indicative of the club trying to have greater control over costs.
“That has allowed the wages to revenue ratio, which reached a slightly uncomfortable 90 per cent in 2019-20, to fall to 72 per cent.”
Southampton finished 15th in 2020-21, their ninth consecutive campaign in the Premier League.
They were bought by Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak in January this year, although that deal was well outside the 2020-21 accounting window.
In other news, “stupid” Mohammed Salisu slammed by ex-Premier League official as Southampton footage analysed.