We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...
Dan Plumley has insisted that loans were always more likely in January for West Brom given their financial status at The Hawthorns.
The finance expert admitted that having a potential wage bill of circa £50million when parachute payments ran out was a cause for concern and something that needs to be balanced.
“You look at the numbers kind of intuitively and you get a grasp of the situation,” he exclusively told West Brom News.
“We’ve had a really desperate financial situation at West Brom with regards to the takeover, if you look at the last figures that were available, 2022 in the accounts they had a wage bill of £50million against a turnover of about £77.6million, but that is inflated by parachute payments and that is linked to being in the Premier League.
“I guess that the logical argument on that is, you remove parachute payments in time when they run out and if you’re left with a significant wage bill of circa £50million in the Championship, that’s a cause for concern and the first warning sign.
“There is that trade-off in the transfer window between balancing the wage bill that’s already there, trying to squeeze that down, bringing in players where you need to bring in players, possibly more likely on loans and also the positivity on the pitch, a play-off push may be on the horizon.
“It comes back to risk and reward but I think the wage bill at West Brom is something in line with the wider finances of the club and the takeover, it’s still something that the club are looking to get under control, that is a trade-off to what you can do in the current market.”
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