Liverpool F.C.

They are choosing 7-9 year long huge contracts. What CFC is doing could be damning for them long-term. We have to keep our belief in Klopp and the boys.

Edit: well this got a lot of discussion both here and on the CFC sub. Want to clarify a bit what I’m saying here. I was super frustrated by the past few days, not to mention the past few windows. Our transfers have been non-existent and it led us here. What made this especially frustrating is that if you take a step back, we never really even had a chance with Caicedo unless we were willing to splash that long contract. That’s why as soon as Brighton accepted the fee the tweets started. (CFC lurkers I know he has talked about watching your club as a kid, everyone did. Chill out)

I’m not stupid. I know money matters a great deal, but at no point did we hear anything about Lavia or Caicedo “loving the project at Stamford Bridge”. Just seems like that needs to be said.

Liverpool Football Club's accounts for the 2022/23 season were finally published on Friday, and they provided some interesting insight into the club's financial standing. I share here some of the highlights.

Turnover amounted to £593.8m in a season where the club finished fifth in the PL and made it only to the first knockout round of the CL. The turnover was comprised of (change on 21/22 in brackets):

• Commercial: £272.5m (+£25.8m)

• Broadcast: £241.6m (-£19.2m)

• Matchday: £79.8m (-£7m)

Expenditure amounted to £632.1m, comprised of:

• Wages £372.9m

• Amortisation 107.5m

• Cost of sales £70.5m

• Other costs £17.7m

No breakdown/information was provided for £63.5m of expenditure.

Players Sales Profit
Profit on player sales was £33.8m, driven by the departures of Sadio Mane, Neco Williams and Takumi Minamino. This meant that the operating loss amounted to £4.5m. Once interest and tax are taken into account, the loss for the financial year was £7m.

Commercial Revenue
Commercial revenue became the biggest revenue earner, marking 25% growth since two seasons prior (20/21). Based on the level of growth, I estimate that the Nike deal in 22/23 generated £90m+.

Wage Bill
The wage bill hit a record high of £373m; increasing by £7m compared to the previous season. Though the club's PL and CL bonus payments would clearly have been lower compared to 21/22, a raft of contract renewals (especially the new Salah deal) resulted in the wage bill growing.

Salah's Contract
Regarding Salah's new contract, once bonuses are taken into account, his weekly earnings will exceed £500k per week- making him one of the PL's highest earners.

Billy Hogan Remuneration
The club's highest paid director (CEO Billy Hogan) saw his overall remuneration grow by 8.7% compared with 21/22, from £2.06m to £2.24m. In 22/23, Man United's CEO had total remuneration of £2.56m and Arsenal's highest paid director's total package amounted to £1.37m.

Transfer + Agent Fees
Additions of player registrations totalled £133m (for Nunez, Gakpo, Ramsay and Carvalho). This figure would include agents' fees as well as the total agreed transfer fees. Agents' fees for the period were £33.7m.

Anfield Expansion
Costs incurred for the Annie Rd. End expansion were £75.9m as at 31st May 2023. Given all the issues with original principal contractor, Buckingham, I wouldn't be surprised if the total costs top £100m.

Club Costs / Credit Facility
The club reduced none of the £71.4m owed to FSG (for the money it borrowed from lenders on behalf of the club), primarily to expand the Main Stand. The club moved to a new credit facility which saw the interest rate increase from 2.10% to 5.84%.

At 31st May 2023, the club owed £112m to clubs who sold players to Liverpool. For context, Arsenal owed selling clubs £239m whilst Man United owed £277m. Liverpool's net spend was £89m- which dispels the misconception that the club sells to buy.

The accounts disclose that the club activated a £100m credit facility on 7th June (after the 22/23 financial year)- which was a day before the Alexis MacAllister deal completed for a reported £35m. Less than four weeks later, Szoboszlai's release clause was triggered for £60m.

This marked the first time in years that the owners took out borrowing to facilitate player acquisitions- something I've long argued the ownership group needed to become more flexible towards. That was a positive change.

Minority Stake
It's interesting that in the Subsequent Events note (the section of the accounts where a company highlights noteworthy happenings after the year-end date), there is no mention of a sale of a minority stake in the club.

It is unusual because the accounts were signed off by the auditor on 27th September 2023, with the club announcing that Dynasty Equity had completed a 'strategic minority investment' in the club the very next day.

The club statement referenced that the investment would be used primarily to reduce bank debt- which was £197m as at 31st May and increased by a further £100m seven days later. We will now have to wait a year, when the 23/24 accounts are published, to find out what happened.

Overall, the club continued to be generally well managed financially- though levels of spend on wages and agents' fees were relatively high (wages should be down substantially this season due to numerous big wages coming off the books last summer plus no CL bonuses).

I estimate revenue for this season will be very close to the 22/23 turnover, but in 24/25, club revenues will increase significantly and are likely to be in the £675m-£700m region.

That estimate is based on:

• Commercial £300m

• Matchday £100m

• Broadcast £275m-£300m (dependent on PL and CL performance).

That level of revenue is staggering, and will give the new manager the resources to get big business done, should he wish to do so.

Up the shaggin reds, time to get rid of those shit bastards and get someone else in. Who'd have thought there's still another 6 games to go of this season to secure Champions League football (if they let us).

EDIT: Thank you for reminding me about the bread recipe, I think this one is fitting: