Manchester City are in a position to go on a vast spending spree next summer after posting a profit of £73m in the 2023-24 financial year and with player sales giving them huge leeway to buy within the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) .
City made a profit of £139m on transfers in a year when they sold Cole Palmer, Aymeric Laporte and Riyad Mahrez which could help fund an overhaul of Pep Guardiola’s ageing squad.
The Premier League champions also made an £80m profit, and a £121m profit on transfers in 2022-23, when they sold established figures like Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko and a host of academy products such as Romeo Lavia, Gavin Bazunu, Juan Larios and Samuel Edozie.
Homegrown players can be particularly valuable sales under PSR and Palmer, Shea Charles and James Trafford, who all left in the 2023-24 financial year, count as “pure profit”. Meanwhile, Julian Alvarez’s lucrative £82m move to Atletico Madrid is set to feature in their 2024-25 accounts.
It means City have the leeway to spend heavily while rivals, including Manchester United, Newcastle and Aston Villa, are restricted in what they can do by PSR, with clubs limited to losses of £105m over a three-year period, apart from permitted expenditure in certain areas.
Manager Guardiola has admitted City need a rebuild. They currently have nine players in their thirties and three more who are 29 while their squad only has one specialist centre-forward, in Erling Haaland, and defensive midfielder, in the injured Rodri. Guardiola does not normally spend heavily in January and much of their business is likely to be conducted next summer.
In 2023-24, City’s turnover of £715m was down slightly on the record £718m posted in the 2022-23 financial year, when they had greater broadcast revenue after winning the Champions League. City’s defence of their European title ended in the quarter-finals, when they were knocked out by Real Madrid.
Their wage bill was £413m, down from £422m the previous year, as a result of not paying bonuses for the winning the Champions League, as they had in the treble season of 2022-23.
City’s commercial income grew to £344m but they could owe up to £290m in transfer fees, signing-on fees and loyalty bonuses due to clauses in contracts and depending upon the success of the club and individual players.
City also admit the outcome of the hearing into the 130 charges levelled at City by the Premier League are one of the “risks and uncertainties” that could have an impact on their fortunes while maintaining they have “irrefutable evidence” of their innocence.
The range of potential punishments, if City are found guilty, include City being deducted enough points they cannot qualify for Europe, hitting one of their revenue streams, or are not in the Premier League, affecting another. Their broadcast income in 2023-24 came to £294.7m.
Their 2024-25 accounts could also be impacted by the team’s current struggles, with City at risk of exiting the Champions League in the group stage. But they are set to play in the Club World Cup next summer, which could be a further source of income.
