The dispute with the Supporters Trust on the initial takeover and the trauma of relegation have obviously not helped in fostering goodwill between parties, but we are where we are, and the overriding objective must be to ensure the long-term security of the club going forward.

My main priority therefore has been, and will continue to be, directed towards ensuring we have a financially sustainable football club for the future, while at the same time trying to maintain competitiveness on the field to give ourselves the best chance of being successful.

There are some financially testing times ahead of us if we don’t get promoted this season and so we will need all the friends we can get. We may well be thankful for having an ownership group who do not take any money out of the club and are committed to helping the club achieve success in the challenging days ahead.

We should remember, however, that throwing huge amounts of money at the problem is not always the answer. Indeed, the rules as they currently stand prevent that happening. There are a number of clubs potentially falling foul of the Championship Profitability & Sustainability rules (which limit seasonal losses a club can incur) and are facing points deductions. Plenty of clubs have also received substantial funds from owners and still not achieved success.

The most important thing is to build a robust organisation behind the scenes where all aspects of the club are acting in harmony, including coaching, data analytics, medical, sports science and, in particular, an efficient recruitment structure. If we can become best in class in this regard that will ultimately pay higher dividends and give us the best chance of achieving sustainable success.

Financial Situation

We have just released our annual accounts for the year ending July 31, 2019, which shows a loss of £7m for our first year outside the Premier League. This follows a loss of £3m made in 2018, a £13m profit made in 2017 and a loss of £14m in the year ending July 31, 2016. Underpinning all these accounts are substantial player sales, particularly in the last three seasons.

The latest accounts include the sale of Dan James but not Oliver McBurnie (which will appear in next year’s figures). If we had not sold players in the last few seasons, we would have reported significantly higher losses. They demonstrate the huge reliance for most clubs in selling players to balance the books and the difficulty in running a financially sustainable football club if you are not an established Premier League team. Yes, there are exceptions, but in the absence of significant Premier League media revenues, most clubs are reliant on a mixture of player sales and owner funding to balance the books.

Next season (2020-21) we will see another drop in our revenue when our final year of parachute payments fall by a further £20m.

To put our revenue decline in context, for the year ending July 31, 2018, we had a total turnover of £126.8m. Next season (2020-21) that will drop to just shy of £30m, and when the parachute payments cease for season 2021-22 then turnover drops to approximately £17m if we are not promoted. That’s a drop of nearly £110m.

So, it is not surprising that many clubs struggle following relegation from the Premier League and that many slide straight through the Championship and into League One.

Yes, we’ve had player sales to offset some of that drop, but that profit on player sales has gone on funding player wages, running the Academy and more generally the significant operating costs of running a top-level football club.

The fact that some of our expensive recruits in the last couple of seasons in the Premier League didn’t work out has obviously exacerbated our problems. It’s very easy to get to a very large number when considering the cost to the club in terms of transfer fees and wages of those players who have made little contribution to on-field performance over that period.

Academy

It’s against the tough financial backdrop highlighted above that we have harsh and difficult decisions to make for the future.

One such consideration is the continuing operation of our two current training facilities - the first team and under 23s at Fairwood, on land which is leased from Swansea University, and the academy at Landore, on land which is owned by the club.