Stoke City will spend their 4th season in the Championship when they open their 2021/22 campaign next season.
Stoke City fans will need no reminding that their side’s form has been poor since dropping out of the Premier League; three Championship tables can readily tell them that.
Since being relegated from the Premier League, the Potters have posted mediocre finishes of 16th, 15th and 14th place. That creeping improvement is really all they have to show for three seasons of effort.
Next season will be their 4th in the second tier and it looks likely to be one with huge losses hanging over their heads according to the Daily Mirror amongst others.
READ: Comment: Luton Town shouldn’t take advantage of Leeds United retained list and swoop for familiar face
Stoke City, disarray and those big losses
The Mirror’s Ricky Charlesworth reports that Stoke have found themselves in the red with what he terms “a mammoth loss of more than £90million.” That kind of loss for the 2019/20 accounting period is startling.
Stoke City made losses of £91.6 million in 2019/20 despite parachute payments @HeronXdave pic.twitter.com/VHYlD8FpjF
— Price Of Football (@KieranMaguire) May 27, 2021
It becomes even more startling when you throw the fact that the Potters were receiving parachute payments into the mix.
This £91.6million deficit according to the Mirror’s Charlesworth covers the period up to May 31 2020 – taking in the first two months of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Charlesworth’s article points out two related factors linked to the magnitude of this debt amount – falling turnover (£49.8m down from £70m) and rising operating expenses (up to £141.4m).
Big debt does not bode well for next season
Charlesworth’s article is at pains to point out that a huge amount of this £91.6m deficit (£72.3m from amortisation and impairment) does not count towards FFP qualification.
Still, that remaining £19.3m will be a big chunk set aside against the FFP regulations which state that a club cannot post losses surpassing £39m over a three-year period.
Whatever way that you look at this, whichever viewpoint that you adopt, this level of debt doesn’t bode well for next season. This is especially more so if, like Stoke City, you are a side floundering below midtable and treading water.
