Southampton owner Solak delivers optimistic update on club finances | Daily Echo

SAINTS owner Dragan Solak aims to always provide a budget demanding at least a top-four Championship finish, adding: "I like the future I see."

Solak insists that Saints will be "healthy" financially whatever happens in the next 12 months, despite this being the last season of parachute payments.

Parachute payments last season were worth around £49million to Saints, while this season they will amount to around £40m, with none from 2027/28.

For clubs not in receipt of parachutes, domestic and international broadcast revenue distributed by the EFL has been worth only around £10m.

But Solak says parachute payments are all used to pay off bank loans, of which Saints owed over £90m as of June 2025, with £45m due last year.

However, as of last summer, Saints, with a hefty wage bill, still owed over £99m in transfer fee instalments, with a huge £57m of that due last season.

That leaves £42m still to be paid as of summer 2026. But last campaign, since these accounts, Saints entered into agreements with a net profit of £54m.

It means that once they have paid off what they owe this year, projections show player trading balances will boost the club's budget, not drain it.

Solak gave a straightforward explanation of the club's finances going forward, when he was asked whether he is willing to continue investing.

"Yeah, absolutely," Solak told the Daily Echo. "Unfortunately, we are still managing certain things that were within the club when we acquired it.

Dragan Solak alongside Phil Parsons and Rasmus Ankersen (Image: PA)

READ: Solak interview: Saints owner speaks on transfer plans and more

"This is the last year that I see a huge need to be careful because everybody knows we have much more payables than receivables from previous years.

"That is starting to change next season, unless we are in the Premier League and then have to buy a huge amount of new players; that's different.

"We would lose money even if we went to the Premier League, because we would have to spend significantly more on the players to survive.

"The only way not to lose money is to stay in the Premier League for a couple of years, so you get the television money for years, then you can stabilise.

"At the moment, we have to pay the loan that was taken during COVID and all of these things, and on top of that, we've had two relegations.

"As much as everybody's praising parachute payments, believe me, it's a very expensive affair. I never saw one Pound of parachute payment in my life.

"The loans you take while you are in the Premier League all have a clause. Once you are relegated, all parachute payments go to pay back the loans.

"So, in all my life, I still haven't seen one Pound of parachute payment being used by us. So actually, parachute payments, I don't think of them.

"They are a medicine without which every relegation would be fatal, but sometimes, as we saw with our Leicester friends, this medicine is not enough.

Saints posted £53.9m loss during 24/25 PL season, financial accounts show. £33.6m loss pre-interest, £23.7m of which transfers. Follows a pre-tax profit of £17.3m in 23/24 Champ and £87m loss in 22/23 PL. Commercial and matchday revenue is up.#SaintsFChttps://t.co/AGebj1omkk

— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) April 5, 2026

"The problem is we have a more expensive team than a stable Championship club would have. You always negotiate relegation wage reduction clauses.

"But you can't really cut it to the level you need because nobody is going to sign an agreement where he doesn't make any money if you go down.

"So, basically, you always have a top-level Championship salary cap, whatever you do. Then you have to figure out how do you survive that?

"You survive that by positive player training, better business and obviously support from the owners, and we'll try to use all these three elements.

"We are where we are now, but I like the future I see.

"I see one more season where we'll have to be very careful about how we invest our money, and after that, being really healthy on the balance sheets.

"Whether we are staying in the Championship or go to the Premier League, we'll be a much, much healthier club with the ability to grow.

"But let's say we stay in the Championship, we will have a positive balance carrying to the next season of more receivables than payables.

"This is very important because the money alone that you get for TV rights and what we make commercially is not enough to have a top team.

"But I think that even if we stay in the Championship next season, we would be able to have a really, really competitive team in any season.

"If we are still in the Championship, I always want our sporting director and our manager to have the budget they need to be in the top four.

Saints technical director Johannes Spors at St Mary's (Image: Stuart Martin)

READ: Six days until summer transfer window: What happens next?

"And then if they're not in the top four, we know whose mistake that is.

"In the Premier League, obviously we fight, but if ever we are in the Championship, we can in any season have a team that must be top four."

Premier League and Championship clubs are, as of July, working under new financial regulations, with the introduction of Squad Cost Ratio rules.

SCR limits clubs' spending on first team-related costs (including transfer fees) to 85 per cent of their income and a restricted level of owner funding.

As it stands, the flexible equity top-up allowance allowed for owners like Solak is set at £33m over three years (up to a maximum of £15m in one season).

"I think they're pretty good rules. I think it makes sense. It's simpler, and it's showing you what you need to do to make the club sustainable," said Solak.

"On top of that, it's coordinated with the Premier League. The absolute worst thing we could have is different types of rules for the two leagues.

"That would be crazy because you would have to run two models all the time. This way we have one model, we know what we have to do, and it's all fair.

"We have some business developments that will come in next year, and we want to further develop the whole commercial side of the business.

"That's something that is not a one-year project. I'm working on this, and it started since I took the chairmanship. We will continue working on this.

"We want to develop a high-performance mentality within the club, to have top-notch talents, working with top-notch support software and technology.

"And then to be able to compete every season. If we are in the Premier League, we are in the Premier League, and we will fight for our fortune.

"We are blessed with an extremely capable academy, and we have also shown recently that we can develop players we acquire from other clubs.

"For example, last summer we realised that we cannot keep Matty Fernandes. He actually broke me when he told me why he could not stay.

Mateus Fernandes sold to West Ham for £42m (Image: Matt Watson / Southampton FC)

"He came to me, and he said, 'If I stay in Southampton, I will never get to play for the Portuguese national team, and I said, 'Okay, that's fair.

"Standing in the way of a boy's dream doesn't make sense, as long as we got the price we wanted. We then reinvested this into four new players.

"We got Caspar Jander, Tom Fellows, Finn Azaz and Leo Scienza, and when you look at their levels now, we probably sold Matty for £100million.

"Our team's core came from Matty, and if we do that from time to time, it's important for us as a Championship team with limited broadcast revenue."