‘EFL will look into this’ – These fans react to Phil Hay Leeds Twitter update
Leeds United announced their 18/19 accounts on Wednesday and they’ve been received with a mixed reaction from Leeds fans.
As Athletic journalist Phil Hay pointed out, there was a lot of fascinating detail in the accounts but the “headline figures are an operating loss of £36m and an annual loss of £21m”.
The difference between the two figures is down to £15m worth of player sales (Ronaldo Vieira and Jack Clarke) although the 18/19 accounts don’t take into account sales from last summer such as Pontus Jansson and Kemar Roofe.
The losses are much bigger than last year and show the gamble that Andrea Radrizzani has made in bringing in Marcelo Bielsa and other big earners such as Kiko Casilla.
Some fans were very downbeat about the results and it’s hard to get past the massive loss.
However, some fans were astute enough to put the figures into some sort of context and, as Hay points out, the EFL will already be aware of the results.
Radrizzani has been very clear about keeping Leeds within profit & sustainability levels and we don’t think these accounts change that.
What they do is back-up Radrizanni’s claim that the current wage bill is unsustainable in the Championship.
The other thing to think about is if these are the books of a well run Championship club – and whatever you think about the figures, there are clubs run at a much higher level of risk than Leeds – the game underneath the Premier League is in trouble and needs changing.
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