Cobblers set to post 'significant loss' as Thomas voices 'concerns'
Cobblers are set to follow the recent trend across the EFL and post a ‘significant’ loss when they publish their annual accounts in the coming days.
Just two League One clubs posted a profit 12 months ago and already several clubs have announced major losses this year, including Rotherham (£4.65m), Wimbledon (£2.9m) and Leyton Orient (£4.6m). Bristol Rovers, who were also in League One in 2024/25, lost even more (£7m), while Wrexham ran up a massive deficit of £33.3million en route to winning promotion to the Championship.
Cobblers announced record losses of £2million when they published their accounts last year – 17 clubs posted bigger losses – and that number is set to rise further when the figures are released for the 2024/25 season.
Despite spending extra money though, the club have one of the lowest budgets in the division and look on course for relegation, and chairman Kelvin Thomas admits dropping down to League Two is a fate that eventually faces all teams who struggle to compete with the big-spenders.
He said: "The last three months have been awful and it's been a shocking slide but that doesn't take away from the work we've done in the last three or four years in League One. We managed to stay above the line but there is almost a gravitational pull when you have a budget in the bottom quarter of the league.
"At some point, things will go wrong and you probably won't stay above the line and you've seen that historically in this league. Exeter are going through the same sort of pain now because they’ve had a budget in the bottom four for a few years.
"Everyone has seen the losses that clubs are posting and will continue to post. We'll post a significant loss as well. There's no getting around the fact that everyone is throwing lots of money at football and there’s a certain reality to where finances are at and it's a tough position to be in and it's tough to compete with other clubs.”
A number of clubs, like Northampton, are hanging their hat on the introduction of the independent regulator to try and level the playing field across the EFL.
Thomas added: "Everyone is looking at the regulator and seeing what impact that'll have. It'll be part of their job to look at the financial sustainability of clubs. They're hoping to publish a report into the state of the game in the next three months and that'll give them a good indication in terms of which direction they need to go in.
"It's not just player costs, all costs are spiralling – energy, minimum wage, etc. There's loads of discussion between EFL owners at board level about trying to get a more sustainable model because it is a concern.
"Hopefully the regulator can get a redistribution deal done with the Premier League and there are talks about moving to a profit and sustainability system rather than a salary cost management model, but there’s no magic formula.”