The payroll of the club is the biggest expense it has. There are a couple of things to watch out for. The first is the absolute size of the wage bill, the second is the amount of the money coming in through the door that is being spent on wages.

The wages are clearly out of control. Since 2004 they have gone up by more than 10% per year, as the team performance has plummeted.

Worse is that the club income has dropped in the same period, so the proportion of the income going on wages has leapt too. The general target figure for wages is no more than 50%. This was achieved up to 2004 but is not at an unsustainable 72%.