West Brom’s PSR position revealed as Shilen Patel move unlocks £41.5m bounty

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Shilen Patel has only been at West Brom for 18 months, but he’s done some fine work behind the scenes. So, where do the Baggies stand in terms of PSR after a busy summer transfer window?

We know West Brom found themselves in a bit of a mess financially in the past few years since dropping out of the Premier League. In many ways, the arrival of Shilen Patel was crucial to the survival of the club.

The Baggies chief has made bold choices in the short time he’s been at the club, including the appointment of Ryan Mason this summer.

West Brom also navigated the transfer window shrewdly, making the necessary sale of Tom Fellows while adding prudently to Mason’s new squad.

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Shilen Patel walked into a financial mess at West Brom

Before Patel arrived, the financial mismanagement of Guochuan Lai left the club in a precarious position. Many have praised Patel for steadying the ship at West Brom, but we’ve now spoken to our in-house financial expert Adam Williams to get into the nitty gritty of the Baggies’ financial situation.

Williams exclusively told EFL Analysis: “West Brom made a loss of £38m in 2023-24, which was one of the very worst in the Championship. And in a division where red ink flows freely, that is saying something.

“They have confirmed that they complied with PSR for the three-year period up until the end of 2023-24, but it must have been very, very close.

“If they had the full allowance of £39m over the three years, they would have had more room for manoeuvre, but you need a secure source of funds to get the maximum capacity, which the previous ownership regime hadn’t supplied in two of the three relevant seasons.”

Turns out, Patel’s £25m cash injection earlier this year was crucial, with Williams adding: “That gives them the full allowance, which has increased to £41.5m for the three-year period covering 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.”

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Where do West Brom stand with PSR moving forward?

West Brom spent around £13m this summer, with the signing of Aune Heggebo being the main outlay. Of course, in terms of net spends, the Baggies ended the transfer window £7.5m in the green. So, where does all this leave the club in terms of PSR?

Williams added: “The £38m loss in 2023-24 will weigh heavy. With deductions for things like infrastructure development, youth investment and women’s football, that will probably shrink by about £10m, which means they can record a PSR loss of around £13.5m across 2024-25 and 2025-26 and stay within PSR.

“That’s a tall order. No doubt about it. We don’t have the figures for 2024-25 yet, but they will have recorded another loss. I think the main job last season was trimming the wage bill, and re-basing the squad with players on smaller pay packages.

“The Corberan compensation was helpful too. Several of their bigger earners left the club, which was necessary when you consider that they had a wage bill of £43m, the biggest in the Championship outside the parachute payments club. When your turnover is below £30m, that’s not sustainable.”

Touching on the departures this summer, it’s glaringly obvious why we didn’t see West Brom sign more players. In fact, Williams suggests the Baggies might just about break even by the end of the next financial year, at best.

He said: “The sales they made this summer just past were, unfortunately, necessary. It wasn’t just the academy graduates Tom Fellows and Caleb Taylor who are considered ‘pure profit’ in PSR terms. Heggem and Furlong’s fees will more or less be entirely profit too, given the fee that the former arrived for and the time that the latter had been with the club.

“That’s about £20m of profit there, which I suspect could see them swing to a break-even result financially for this season. That gives them some grace to keep optimising their costs. They are over the worst, I would say. The new owners have been smart with their strategy – and it’s now a question of building sustainably.”

Patel took risks when he bought West Brom, but he’s slowly but surely righting the wrongs of the past and putting the club in a strong position.