THE headline loss figure of Saints’ accounts may not look pretty, but there is plenty of good news to be found.

• A snapshot of Saints' accounts
• Saints director paid £600k

A £7.7m loss sounds horrible on first hearing, but it needs to be taken in context.

This was the year that ended June 30, 2010, so came after Markus Liebherr pulled the club out of administration.

He had a squad that need rebuilding, a club that needed revitalising, and he was prepared to spend money doing it.

Despite the appearance of hefty loans on the balance sheet, there was plenty of investment – and, lest we forget, the debt that Liebherr entirely wrote off for the club.

The figures that Saints, and Nicola Cortese who has been running the show, have every right to throw back at those who knock the £7.7m loss will be financial statistics such as a huge increase in turnover, up from £8.851m the previous year to £14.281m.

The loss before player trading was down from £10.309m to £6.680m with the total loss before interest and tax, though still £7.764m, much better than the previous reporting period of £9.030m.

That also took into account that player trading cost the club £1.084m as opposed to a profit of £1.280m as the likes of Rickie Lambert, Dean Hammond, Jose Fonte, Dan Seaborne, Lee Barnard and Jason Puncheon were all signed for fees.

Since the end of the financial year, a further £1.3m has been spent on players such as Ryan Dickson, Frazer Richardson, Guly do Prado and Richard Chaplow with no sales.

The concerns will be that operating costs were up from £19.160m to £22.233m.

Wages and salaries, including social security and pension costs, were up from £11.448m to £12.279m – a rise of some £831,000.

That is best explained by the large staff recruitment in that period as the administrative side of the club saw their number rise from 48 to 60.

The football portion of the company grew from having 117 staff to a remarkable 153.

A brief breakdown of Saints’ turnover figure shows:

• Broadcasting revenue was down from £1.337m to £821,310;

• Match day revenue hugely increased from £5.142m to £10.072m:

• And commercial income streams were also up from £1.612m to £3.043m.

The balance sheet also shows a capital contribution reserve of £14.685m.

It also reveals that £7.004m is due to be paid out to creditors in the next year.

While an £8.4m loan is due to repaid in more than five years to the shareholder – who was Markus Liebherr and will now be whoever owns the business when his estate is settled.

A further £6.052m is owed in more than five years to group undertakings.

Though it can start to get complicated, there are other figures that need to be taken into account, not least of other companies.

The above figures only represents Southampton Football Club Limited which is actually a subsidiary of a company called DMWSL 613 Limited, which was owned by Markus Liebherr.

DMWSL 613 Limited also has other companies under its umbrella, pretty much all associated with Saints such as the stadium, the training ground, Jackson’s Farm etc.

In effect it is like a pyramid with all those companies, including the football club, feeding into its overall standing.

Its accounts do state: “The principal activity of the company is a holding company.

The principal activity of the group is that of a football club.”

That is underlined by the fact its turnover for the financial year was £14.818m which means not a little over £500,000 more than was reported by Southampton Football Club Limited alone.

Its loss before interest and tax was £9.032.

It shows impressive fixed and current assets and reports the amount owed within one year is £7.044m.

But it also states the amount owed in more than five years is £20.4m as a loan to be repaid to the shareholder – that is £12m on top of what Southampton Football Club Limited owes.

Markus Liebherr was the only shareholder in DMWSL 613 Ltd before his death last August, with the company now in probate.

The accounts for DMWSL 613 Limited gives an overview of the figures which provides a summary.

It reads: “The board consider the key performance indicators for the group to be turnover and staff costs, with player trading being the key exceptional item each year.

“The results show a substantially increased turnover from that reported in the individual subsidiary companies in the prior year as a result of good cup runs, including winning the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

“Average attendances increased from 17,849 in 2008/09 to 20,982 in the 2009/10 season, although match day turnover does not reflect this as a result of reduced ticket prices.

“Operating costs increased in the year due to additional costs associated with the cup runs and enhancements to the first team squad and as a result of the takeover.

“As a result of entering administration in the previous season, the Club started the season with a point penalty of minus ten points resulting in the finishing seventh in the league table, seven points short of a play-off position.”

It added: “The period ended 30 June 2010 was a period of rebuilding for Southampton Football Club following the acquisition of the club out of administration by Markus Liebherr in July 2009.

“The acquisition allowed the club to stabilise both on and off the field and then start to build for the future.

“Significant financial investment has been made into the playing staff in order to achieve its stated aim of regaining its Championship status to allow it to then ultimately to regain promotion to the Premier League.

“This has been coupled with significant off-field investment in the Club’s infrastructure, particularly within its Football Development and Support Centre and the future investment planned for the Staplewood Training Ground facility.

“The death of Markus Liebherr in August 2010 shocked and saddened everyone in and around the club, but the Liebherr Estate is committed to the continued investment in order to achieve success for Southampton Football Club.

“This is demonstrated by the ongoing investment in both playing staff and infrastructure.”

It added: “The Group has received confirmation from the ultimate finding party that sufficient funds will be provided to finance the business for the foreseeable future.”