Carlos says he’s going to be ‘unfair’ on defenders
ough United. A number of youngsters also went out, including Scott High to Shrewsbury Town for the first half the season.
Sobhi’s permanent move to another Egyptian side, Pyramids, was one of several player sales made in the last financial year (as a reminder, that’s July 2020 to June 2021). As well as Sobhi, the accounts narrative also specifically notes the sales of Karlan Grant to West Brom and Terence Kongolo to Fulham as ‘key sales’ in helping them record a profit from the sale of player registrations totalling £10.1m.
It is important not to take this number at face value, however, as it is based on a complicated accounting calculation that writes off the value of a player’s purchase price gradually over time – a process called amortisation.
In reality, the accounts appear to suggest that Town spent £2m on new players in 2020/21 while making player sales worth £21m. These figures would not include any future add-ons.
The supporting narrative also shows that ‘since the year end’ (between June 30, 2021 and March this year) the club ‘has acquired and disposed of a number of player registrations. The net income from these transactions is £0.1m.’
In other words, the net effect of the club’s business in the summer 2021 and January 2022 transfer windows comes out as a net profit of around £100,000. It is unclear at this stage whether that includes payments to agents on the club’s various free transfers or the agreement reached when releasing Isaac Mbenza, but it would appear the only player who attracted a transfer fee this season was Juninho Bacuna, who left for Rangers.
Before we get to profit, it’s worth reminding ourselves that a big chunk of that number comes from how player sales are recorded.
Simply put, it can be very misleading: if you sign a player for £5m and sell him for £15m five years later, the profit in accounting terms would likely be recognised as £15m (and not £10m as you might expect), because that initial £5m outlay turns the player into an asset, which (as far as the accountants are concerned) devalue over time regardless that in reality his value has trebled.
We also need to acknowledge the football side of things for a moment in saying that while club’s tight running of the finances in 2020/21 set them up to have a much better go of things in the current campaign thanks to a series of prudent summer loan signings and free transfers, had Town ultimately been relegated to League One last season their situation would obviously not look nearly as good. They cut things fine, that’s for sure; but ultimately, they got away with it.
In the end, then, the gamble has paid off, and it is welcome news for Town that they returned to a profit before tax of £2.6m having been at an equivalent £8.5m loss the previous year, and an operating loss of just £5m compared with the previous year’s £22.7m. That’s all while still making a modest dent in their net debt figure – despite going through the season with seemingly minimal owner investment and playing the entire campaign behind closed doors.
That was helped significantly not just by their work in the transfer market, but also by Hoyle having restructured his loan repayments during the 2020/21 season (as revealed in last year’s accounts), in principle pushing his next repayment back to February 2022 – though whether the club have in fact resumed (or will resume) those repayments in light of Hoyle’s return to a position of direct day-to-day operational and financial responsibility is yet to be confirmed.
TOWN’S head coach Carlos Corberan has admitted he is being ‘very unfair’ to his impressive centre-backs as the Terriers bid to cement their play-off place.
For Friday night’s 1-0 win over Hull Matty Pearson was benched having been in a superb run of form, and Corberan took the time to explain his thinking.
Having had a lot of success in the first half of the season playing a three at the back, the Terriers now change to a two depending on their opposition.
Corberan likes to outnumber the strikers he is facing, so a lone centre-forward just requires a two, a striker with a close 10 or a false nine near to them tends to require a three.
All of Town’s first-team choices this season in the position – Tom Lees, Pearson, and Levi Colwill – have made 25 or more appearances so far.
For Hull a two was required so Pearson was benched, a decision Corberan said was ‘very unfair’.
The Town boss said: “We didn’t put Matty Pearson in the first XI and it’s a very unfair decision from me, going forward not putting Colwill in the first XI will be another unfair decision from me, and not putting Tom Lees in is another unfair decision from me.
“Every time I want to play with two centre-backs I’m going to make one mistake or an unfair decision because I believe we have three first-team top-class centre-backs.”
When the current season’s accounts come out next year, we can expect to see the wage bill fall again