Posh co-owner says the club’s financial losses will get worse before they get better

That’s the case even though the £10 million sale of star man Ivan Toney to Brentford will be registered in the June, 2021 accounts.

The drop in profits from player sales from £4.4 million in the previous year’s accounts to £556k in the latest accounts, explained the bulk of the losses.

But MacAnthony insists the losses should not cause alarm thanks to the generous financial support of his fellow owners Dr Jason Neale and Stewart ‘Randy’ Thompson.

“Big losses do not sit comfortably with me,” MacAnthony stated on the latest episode of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast.

“And next year’s accounts will probably be worse even though we sold Ivan Toney for big money.

“It’s all the expenses you don’t see that mount up.

“We backed the manager and went for promotion last season and if we’d have been successful we would have made over £1.5 million more than what we’d budgeted. It was a risk we felt worth taking.

“We sold Ivan, but we also spent big on Sammie Szmodics and Jonson Clarke-Harris in the summer which is all credit to my partners.

“But this season we have had no crowds and no matchday income which all takes a toll on our finaces and these losses will have to be reined in at some point.

“We would possibly have had 10,000-12,000 gates for some of the bigger games this season which would again have been more than we’d budgeted.

“The losses are not sustainable in a pandemic, but it’s certainly not a crisis thanks to the liquidity of my partners.

“Our model has always been to sell a player for a big profit and I could raise £10 million in a day if I had to.

“Being in the Championship would help with the bigger gates. I’d also expect a big bump in season ticket sales and matchday income anyway as fans will be desperate to get back to games.

“We are moving towards a squad with plenty of youth team graduates in it which will help bring the wage bill down.”

The biggest Posh sale in the latest accounting period was striker Matt Godden to Coventry City for a reported £700k.

The biggest Posh purchase in the latest accounting period was the £500k handed to Barnet for midfielder Jack Taylor, a fee that could eventually rise to over £1 million with add ons.