22 Jul 2026 11:43:14
Flea - creating a new post rather than reply to a thread that is at the very bottom of the page so doubt if many will read it.
We were discussing non-football wages from the latest accounts which are somewhere in the region of £60m+, (excluding NI), when scaled back to 12 months. This assumes £71m, again excluding NI, for the 12 months for the squad which is probably at the higher end for most public estimates.
You correctly identified that Nathan will earn more than the average non football wage which works out at roughly 172k pa excluding NI but his circa 625k pa, excluding NI - the highest paid director according to the accounts barely moves the dial.
Even if you assume the manager and his assistants pull in £10m pa excluding NI, which is highly unlikely to put it mildly, this only moves the dial slightly and you are still talking about somewhere in the region of £143k excluding employers NI.
Maybe an accountant or two and doctor might get there but in reality the vast vast majority of the rest - groundsmen, cleaners, catering and retail staff, ticket desk, office staff etc will earn nothing like that or even a third of that.
Maybe it is payoff to previous managers or agents fees although again these would have to be enormous to make any of this make sense.
Also if they are included in wages what makes up the 40m of other costs - excluding interest - the club incurs. A high utilities bill, rates, postage stamps and policing etc etc?
I did see a poster on another site claiming that the apprentices were all on monster salaries, multiples of the money City and Chelsea were paying, but I don't believe the moon is made of cheese or that the earth is flat either.
22 Jul 2026 14:18:44
Apologies, Nathan earns nearer 680k - still a non issue of course.
22 Jul 2026 19:03:24
TFOG, I love your posts, you are very good at probing the numbers. I personally have not researched the accounts, which I have wanted to do, but other events have delayed me.
Can I understand from what you have said that you feel money has been taken out of the club? If so, may I pose a question: would this show in dividends to the holding company, i.e.
Fosun? Or have I missed the point. Happy to be put right.
22 Jul 2026 21:06:35
Wimborne, many, many thanks for that v kind comment.
In answer:
No dividends have been taken out of the club.
That would be illegal, as Wolves do not have distributable reserves.
However, Wolves can, as many companies do, pay their parent/sister company/(ies) for a variety of things such as management services or marketing, etc. etc.
Would this normally be reported via the "wages" item? Well, no, but as stated above, very little makes sense in the accounts, which are obviously deliberately opaque or limited in information.
The accounts do show, however, that Wolves have had substantial dealings with other parts of the Fosun group - being owed (£67m in 2025), and owing (£248m in 2025), massive sums by/to companies within the Fosun empire.
What were these activities - was it simply lending and borrowing between different parts of the group?
If so, why would Wolves be lending to Fosun? The amount owed is mind-blowingly high, and certainly contradicts the idea that Wolves were allegedly standing alone without financial support from Fosun.
(Note, Wolves' net debt in total, including to Fosun, banks and other clubs, is roughly £300m).
Regardless of what they are, though, why are Wolves carrying on such massive interactions with sister companies within the Fosun empire?
PS I wrote a piece on the ten-year net transfer balance that, hopefully, you would appreciate.
I compared it to both house restoration and car depreciation!
Sadly, as it is at the end of a thread that will have moved down the page, I doubt many will have read it.
Whilst, boringly about numbers again, I thought it explained the issue - and the massive problems associated with it - fairly simply so that people who don't understand accounts/numbers could get an idea of the shortcomings in the transfer dealings in number terms over the last 10 years.
Do have a look and let me know what you think?