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Wolves may need to make player sales to balance books

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews the latest accounts of Wolverhampton Wanderers: https://swissramble.substack.com/p/wolverhampton-wanderers-finances

Wolves’ £46m pre-tax loss is obviously not great, but it was by no means the worst financial result in the Premier League in 2021/22, as even larger losses have been reported by Manchester United £150m, Leicester City £92m and Tottenham £61m.

Wolves £15m profit from player sales in 2021/22 was much lower than the prior season’s £61m, but this was more in line with their normal performance, as they only made £63m profit combined in the eight years between 2013 and 2020.

This season will be better after the sales of Morgan Gibbs-White to Nottingham Forest, Leander Dendocker to Aston Villa and Ruben Vinaigre to Sporting. The exact amount of Gibbs-White’s deal has not been disclosed, but most reports have the fee as £25m plus a potential £17m add-ons.

Wolves’ gross financial debt increased by £57m from £61m to £118m, mainly a £105m bank loan with Macquarie, repayable over 3 years at 7.185%, which is secured on Premier League TV rights. They also took out a £13m interest-free loan from Fosun.  Gross debt has significantly increased from only £4m in 2016, despite the owners writing-off £127m.

After the one-off factors that benefited the prior year’s accounts, it was no surprise that Wolves reported a loss in 2021/22. Their best hope of breaking-even is to make a couple of lucrative player sales, so it would be no surprise to see some of their talent move on in the summer.


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