By David Owen
March 7 – Leicester City’s financial fairy tale came to an abrupt end in the year to end-May 2018 after their on-pitch exploits of recent seasons. Bereft of European football, the Foxes, as was foreseeable, suffered a severe reverse in both turnover and profitability, while managing to remain narrowly in the black at the pre-tax level.
The Thai-controlled club, who have just appointed former Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers as the latest in a string of new managers in the wake of the near miraculous Premiership title-winning season under Claudio Ranieri, mustered a pre-tax profit of just £1.6 million on turnover of £158.9 million.
This compared with a record £92.5 million – the biggest in the Premier League – on turnover of £233 million in 2016-17.
The latest figures, revealed on the club website, will not have taken into account Riyad Mahrez’s big money move to Manchester City – a factor which bodes well for bottom-line profitability in 2018-19. But they will have included Danny Drinkwater’s £35 million transfer to Chelsea, along with a phalanx of arrivals such as those of England man Harry Maguire from Hull City, Kelechi Iheanacho from the sky blue side of Manchester and Adrien Silva from Portugal’s Sporting.
Commenting on the figures, Susan Whelan, chief executive, said: “The accounts of the previous two years have reflected unique seasons in Leicester City’s history, where our intention to invest in our future have been supported by considerable competition revenue.
“The accounts of 2017-18 demonstrate our continued commitment to ensuring revenues generated are reinvested into building a squad and infrastructure capable of competing at such levels on a more consistent basis.
“At a time when our biggest investment projects are visibly beginning to take shape, Leicester City supporters can feel excited about what the future holds for their club and confident in the King Power Group’s vision to take them there.”
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