No more wage money says Jenkins

A LAVISH transfer window spending spree last summer has left Albion with “no more money for wages”, chief executive Mark Jenkins revealed.

The Baggies splashed out close to £40 million on players as former chairman John Williams and ex-CEO Martin Goodman attempted to improve on last season’s tenth place.

Big salaries were signed off, including a £108,000-a-week loan deal for PSG midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, but hardly any cash came in.

Darren Fletcher, Callum McManaman and Sebastien Pocognoli left on free transfers, while only a nominal sum was received from Birmingham City for Craig Gardner.

Albion’s accounts for the year up to July 2017 show a record turnover of £137.9 million and a £39 million pre-tax profit.

But nine months later, and with the club staring relegation in the face, the financial outlook is very different with the club requesting an overdraft for the first time in a decade.

And Jenkins, who returned to the Baggies in February after 14 months away, says the club is “at the maximum point” for wages.

“We are at our short-term cost control limit,” he said.

“I knew the figures when I left, I thought ‘in no way can we be at our limit’.

“From the outside looking in, I thought that was a negotiating stance, but I’ve come back and I can assure you we are right at our max. There is no more money for wages.”

The club’s highest earners, such as skipper Jonny Evans, Nacer Chadli and Salomon Rondon, are likely to be moved on in the summer as Jenkins and the board balance the books.

But Richard Garlick, head of football administration, said there would be no necessity to lose non-playing staff “en masse” in the event of relegation.

Jenkins left Albion in December 2016 after helping to facilitate Guochuan Lai’s £175 million takeover, but he was asked to step out of retirement after Lai sacked Williams and Goodman in February. Jenkins answered the call and has already launched a forensic review into Albion’s failing operations. He said he owed Lai “the chance to rebuild it”.

His return was also driven by an impassioned sense of “hurt” at the club’s collapse, on and off the

pitch.