Saints have today announced they made a loss of £4.9m in the last financial year even after making £12.7m through player sales.

Saints PLC chairman Rupert Lowe also revealed how at one stage the player and coach wage bill was a huge 81 per cent of the club’s turnover.

Also in the Southampton Leisure Holdings plc figures for the year ending June 30 2008 was the revelation that the club's overdraft peaked at £6.3m during the summer.

In a statement released to the Stock Exchange this morning Lowe, who along with football board chairman Michael Wilde didn’t return to the club until May, laid the blame for the figures at the door of the previous board.

He said: “The operational performance during the period reflected in these financial statements was entirely down to the previous Board as the new Board was not appointed until 15 May 2008.

“I do not propose to go into the detail, which is reviewed by David Jones in the Financial Review, but to lose £4.9m after a £12.7m profit on player disposals, and to run a player/coach wage bill of 81% of turnover speaks for itself.

"The only justification for this would have been promotion, but in the event we narrowly avoided relegation!

"When I, and five of my fellow Directors, resigned from the Board in June 2006, in the hope that it would bring unity, we were required to warrant that there was £3.4m cash on deposit at Barclays Bank.

"There were also trail payments from Theo Walcott and other player trading, together with a pipeline of excellent young players coming through the Academy. Upon my return in May 2008, the story was very different.

"The cash on deposit had been replaced by an overdraft which peaked at £6.3m during the course of this summer.

"This was despite the receipt in the 2006/07 financial year of trail payments for Theo Walcott £1m and outright sales of Gareth Bale £5m, Dexter Blackstock £0.5m, Martin Cranie £0.4m and in the 2007/08 financial year, the buyout of Theo Walcott’s trail payments £3.1m, and outright sale of Kenwyne Jones £4.8m, Chris Baird £3m and Leon Best £0.7m.

"All these players came through our Academy as part of a long term plan to make the Club financially sustainable for the future benefit of shareholders, supporters and players alike.

"Since returning in May, the current Board has worked tirelessly to bring our costs more into line with our dwindling revenues.

"We have done this throughout the Company where possible, but the nature of player contracts means that this process cannot be completed instantly.

"This work will continue, in discussion with both our loan note holder and Barclays Bank, on whose support we remain reliant.

"We are fortunate that, as a result of the long term Academy plan, we have been able to mould a team of young, dedicated and technically able players, many of whom had been previously overlooked for first team selection.

"Together with some limited, but astute, signings, Jan Poortvliet and his staff have worked to play an attacking brand of Dutch football that makes the most of the technical abilities which the players were taught by Georges Prost and Stewart Henderson as they progressed through the Academy.

"The prevailing view amongst the English football establishment was that we would struggle to win any games playing with such a young team.

"We have disproved this theory by playing some very entertaining football and whilst at the time of writing we have obtained 16 points from 17 games, we are confident that we will become stronger as the season progresses.

"We are proud that our team usually includes a very high percentage of Academy players who are British, some of whom are already being recognised by their national teams.

"This gives us a very good foundation upon which to build and benefit from the talents of our entire squad.

"We are under no illusion that our progress can be taken for granted and there will, undoubtedly, be some “ups and downs.”

"Building the foundation was always going to be the hardest part but we have achieved this.

"People are now beginning to sit up and take notice of our achievements under Jan Poortvliet, which has brought praise from many quarters.

"Our recent match against Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers is a prime example with their experienced striker Chris Iwelumo stating after the match that Saints were one of the best footballing sides he had come across in the division this season, and consequently one of the most attractive to watch.

"His sentiments were echoed by Wolves’ manager Mick McCarthy who had nothing but good things to say about our second half performance at St Mary’s when we also had the added disadvantage of playing with ten men.

"Coventry boss Chris Coleman and Swansea manager Roberto Martinez have been similarly forthcoming with praise.

"Last Saturday’s match against Wolves also showed again how passionate our supporters are and there is no doubt that this helps the players perform better. Given time and further support from the various interested parties, we are confident that we can resolve the serious challenges that face our Company.

"We are not currently strong enough to indulge the small, but vocal, negative elements of our support base and need everybody to pull together while we recover our financial strength.

"One definition of “credit” is “suspicion asleep” and as the extent of the folly of the world’s banking system is laid bare, “suspicion” is alive and well today.

"Balance sheets are being forcibly contracted and economies are suffering the consequences.

"This is not a good time to be exposed to too much debt, particularly if revenues are likely to be adversely affected by an economic downturn.

"As a Club we have never needed the people who are true supporters more than we do today.

"To see 3,800 fans travelling to Reading this coming weekend encourages me to hope that this is happening and we are adamant that with everyone pulling in the same direction we can restore this great Club back to where it belongs."