The 2023/24 accounts marked Wolves’ eighth season under the ownership of Fosun and their sixth consecutive campaign in the Premier League. Indeed, although the owners have faced plenty of criticism recently, it should be noted that the club has improved during their tenure from the lower reaches of the Championship.
Since Fosun bought Wolves, the club has lost money six years out of eight, including a hefty £128m in the last three seasons alone. Initially, investment in the squad led to £80m net losses in the Championship, though the owners’ gamble did pay off, as this helped secure promotion to the Premier League.
However, to outside observers it would appear that Wolves have hit a wall, having twice finished seventh in the Premier League, and also qualifying for the Europa League, where they reached the quarter-finals. Since those heady days, the club has cut back on its spending, leading to some struggles on the pitch. In fact, as it stands, although they are surely safe from relegation.
Wolves’ pre-tax loss significantly reduced from £67m to £14m, as profit from player sales increased from £44m to £65m, while revenue rose £9m (5%) from £169m to £178m. More meaningfully, operating expenses were cut by £18m (7%) from £269m to £241m, while net interest payable almost halved from £10.4m to £5.6m.
After all the cost cutting, Wolves still posted a £14m loss, but this was actually one of the better results to date in the Premier League, where nearly half of the clubs lost more than £50m, led by Manchester United’s terrible £131m.
Almost all of the revenue growth came in broadcasting, which rose £8m (6%) from £125m to £133m, though gate receipts increased £1.1m (7%) from £15.1m to £16.2m. Commercial was also up, but only by 1% (£0.3m) from £28.5m to £28.8m.
Player trading
Wolves have really ramped up their player trading, generating £184m profit in the past four seasons, compared to only £67m in the preceding 10 years.
The improvement in Wolves’ bottom line owed a lot to a substantial profit from player sales, which increased from £44m to £65m. This was largely driven by the sales of Matheus Nunes to Manchester City, Ruben Neves to Al-Hilal and Nathan Collins to Brentford, though decent money was also earned from the transfers of Conor Coady to Leicester City, Raul Jimenez to Fulham and Ryan Giles to Luton Town. In addition, performance related add-ons from previous sales were crystallised for Diogo Jota, Morgan Gibbs-White, Willy Boly and Patrick Cutrone. Wolves’ £65m profit was seventh highest in the Premier League, albeit far below the likes of Manchester City £139m, Brighton £110m and West Ham £96m.
This is great news financially, but it does mean that Wolves have acquired a bit of a reputation as a “stepping stone” club, where players can put themselves in the shop window in the hope of securing a move to a bigger team.
Clearly, much of the player trading was required in order to comply with the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR), which might also be behind the club’s decision to extend this season’s accounting date to 30th June.
One big reason for Wolves’ need to focus on player trading is their inability to grow their revenue. Indeed, this has only grown £5m (3%) compared to their first season back in the Premier League in 2018/19.
As a result of this lack of growth, Wolves’ £178m revenue was only 15th highest in the Premier League, placing them behind the likes of Crystal Palace and Fulham. For some more perspective, the top five clubs all earned at least three times as much as Wolves, led by Manchester City £725m, Manchester United £662m, Liverpool £614m and Arsenal £614m.
European competition has made a massive financial difference for the leading clubs, with four of them earning more than a quarter of a billion Pounds in the last five years (Manchester City €567m, Liverpool €399m, Chelsea €386m and Manchester United €281m), putting Wolves’ £22m into perspective.
Apart from the 2020/21 season, which was played without fans, ticket prices had been raised every year after promotion to the Premier League, which was again going to be the case this season. The club initially announced a massive 17% hike in season ticket prices for the 2024/25 with many fans facing even higher rises, e.g. under-14s in the family enclosure were hit by a staggering 133% increase. However, following understandably angry feedback from supporters, the club eventually decided to scrap these plans, freezing ticket prices this season.
Wolves’ commercial revenue is on the low side for the Premier League, firmly in the bottom half of the division. There is a huge gap to the Big Six, with the top three earning more than 10 times as much: Manchester City £345m, Liverpool £308m and Manchester United £303m. That comparison might be a little unreasonable, but Wolves were also a fair way below some similar sized clubs.
That comparison might be a little unreasonable, but Wolves were also a fair way below some similar sized clubs. Wolves’ £142m reported wage bill is 15th highest in the Premier League, though it would be even lower if the one-off compensation payments were excluded and shown as an exceptional item (as is often the case with other clubs).
Owner funding
Fosun have invested very little in the club’s infrastructure, adding up to less than £6m in the last four seasons, which could perhaps be seen as a sign of the ownership’s lack of ambition.
Fosun have provided £214m of funding since they acquired Wolves, including £18m in share capital last season and £51m in 2023/24. Looking at owner financing in the 2 years up to 2023 (defined as owner loans plus share capital less dividends), Wolves received £65m from Fosun, which was actually on the low side for the Premier League. It was much less than Everton £449m, Fulham £408m and Aston Villa £347m, though their substantial funding has brought varying degrees of success.
There have been many rumours that the owners would be open to offers, either to buy the club outright or take a minority stake, especially as Fosun have offloaded a number of “non-core” businesses since their finances were hit by the pandemic.
This was a good set of accounts, as Wolves significantly reduced their net loss, though this was only achieved thanks to significant profit from player sales, which weakened their squad. The lack of revenue growth is also concerning. Like many other clubs, they have had to make compromises in order to remain compliant with PSR, but they managed to do this in 2023/24 and look fine for this season (after again making sizeable player sales).
Interestingly, Wolves have downgraded the stated objective in the accounts from “establish ourselves as regular challengers for qualification to European club competition” that was included in the last few years to “remain a competitive and established Premier League football club”. Wolves’ supporters have long feared that Fosun have lowered their ambitions for the club, leading to the steady fall down the league table. They should have enough this season to avoid relegation, but this is more through the ineptitude of the three promoted clubs rather than their own performances.
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