The double swoop for Michael Svensson and Antti Niemi caused Saints to make a loss of £3.5m for the first half of the financial year.
The accounts, released to the Stock Exchange this morning, show the club reporting a deficit of £3,573,000 for the six months to November 30, 2002.
Saints showed a profit of £5.4m for the same period last year - but that was due to selling Dean Richards for £8.1m.
The operating loss for the same period was just £287,000 and chairman Rupert Lowe stressed the overall state of the club is healthy.
Turnover has increased by £1.5m to £16.3m and match-day income has increased by 34 per cent to £5.9m, mainly due to two extra games being played at St Mary's compared to the first half of the previous financial year.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article