Wolves have come a long way since 2014

The tireless Swiss Ramble deploys his financial acumen to assess the latest accounts of Wolverhampton Wanderers from his Zurich base.

I was at this game - needless to say Charlton lost.

When I started watching football in the early 1950s Wolves were one of the top teams so it is good to see them approach former glories after some very difficult years when they almost collapsed altogether.   Jack Hayward was, of course, their saviour.

On Thursday I shall be having lunch with a lifelong Wolves supporter who still goes to matches in his late 80s.   He recently saw a match from a box for the first time.

Wolves have come a long way

As a sign of how far Wolves have come since playing in League One in 2014, their £133m revenue in 2019/20 placed them 29th in the Deloitte Money League, which ranks clubs worldwide. This was down from previous season’s 25th, but ahead of Milan £130m and just behind Ajax £136m.

The 2020/21 accounts show they swung from £40m pre-tax loss to £145m profit, or £18m if £127m Fosun debt write-off is excluded. Revenue rose £61m to £194m, due to deferred 2019/20 income. Profit on player sales was up £51m to £61m.

They have come a long way under Fosun’s ownership, but the huge 2020/21 profit was largely due to the loan write-off. It also owed a lot to high player sales and revenue deferred from 2019/20, so this season is likely to see a return to the club posting a loss.

The Swiss Ramble’s authoritative calculations suggest that the club should now be fine with Profitability & Sustainability rules, thanks to allowable deductions (notably the academy and promotion bonus), COVID impact and averaging 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons. The loan write-off does not count for FFP.

After failing to meet UEFA’s FFP targets, Wolves were given some sanctions as part of a settlement agreement for 2020/21 and 2021/22, including a small €600k fine and break-even targets: €30m for 2019/20; aggregate within acceptable deviation for three years up to 2021.

Fosun’s contribution

Fosun have not put any money into the club in the last two years (though they did waive debt repayment), but their £131m funding is still one of the highest in the Premier League in the 5 years up to 2020,

In the 5 years since Fosun bought the club, the y made £82m from operations, but have largely benefited from higher loans (£131m from the owners and £61m from the bank). Most of this (£203m) has been spent on players (net) with £21m going on infrastructure plus £10m interest.

Following the waiver, debt of £61m is one of the lowest in the Premier League, far below Spurs £854m (stadium), Manchester United£530m (Glazer’s leveraged buy-out), Everton £409m and Brighton £306m (latter two’s debt is very largely in the form of “friendly” owner loans).

The club spent £84m on player purchases, mainly Fabio Silva, Nelson Semedo and Ki-Jana Hoever. Wolves have averaged £104m gross transfer spend in the 3 years since promotion (£68m net spend), though much lower expenditure in 2021/22.

The wages to turnover ratio slightly increased from 71% to 72%, though this is much better than the 192% last reported in the Championship (including promotion bonus). That’s not bad, but the ratio would have been much higher at 86% if COVID impact were excluded.

Following the growth, the £139m wage bill is now 9th highest in the Premier League, ahead of both Villa £138m and West Ham £129m. That said, it’s over £200m less than Manchester City £355m and around £100m below #AFC £238m.  Wages have grown £88m in 3 years since promotion, while revenue is up £168m in the same period (including £50m deferred from 2019/20).

Commercial income rose £0.5m (2%) from £24.1m to £24.6m.  It was up from £11m in Championship, but still only 13th best in Premier League, far below the Big Six, e.g. Arsenal £136m.

In 2019/20 Wolves earned £20m (€22m) from Europe after reaching the Europa League quarter-final, where they were eliminated by eventual winners Sevilla. This is very good, but much lower than Champions League representatives (£60-80m).