Profit announcement.

The club this week announced a pre-tax profit of £16.8 million for the six month period ending November 30th 2005.

Despite the positive announcements in the press it must be taken into account that this figure has only increased by 2% and does include the transfer fee received for SWP. It is also believed that £5 million of this amount will be used to pay off some of the more immediate short-term loans and of course does not include the transfer fee paid for Georgios Samaras in January.

A couple of positive notes in the figure are that turnover increased to £28.2 million and the outlay on salaries was reduced by around £1 million - a figure which should drop even further now that Robbie Fowler is no longer picking up his mortgage deposits from the club.

The club are also expecting to profit heavily from their involvement in the FA Cup this season, with a further home game at least still to come and with eyes on a league finish on par with last season to generate further income to at least manage the debt that the club currently have.