Would I be right to assume that the tax man would be first in line for payment in the event of the club going bust?
If a club consistently posting losses can owe the tax man anything outside of employer NI that is
No, HMRC lost their preferred status a few years ago. That's one of the reasons why they so aggressively chuck winding up orders around, normally just to frighten companies into coughing up.
If you're making losses, then clearly you won't be paying corporation tax; you will have to hand over all PAYE and both employer's and employee's NI. Losses can also be carried forward to offset against future profits - the club has the best part of £200m in unused losses.
Net debt of £87m at July 2016 then
We can take a guess at the 18 months since
Money in £48m
Pickford £25m
van Aanholt £14m
Borini £5m
Kaboul £4m
Money out £30m
Ndong £13m
Djilobodji £8m
McNair / Love £5m
Gibson / Oviedo £4m
Net money in £18m makes debt £69m
Hopefully no operational losses since with wage reductions (aside from you know who)
There's other player movements but none significant, except any I've forgotten.
That's not quite right as most fees are paid in instalments. At 31/7/16 we owed a total of £35m to other clubs; £19m payable in 2016/17, and the other £16m this season and potentially beyond. At the same date we were owed £9m by other clubs, £8m due on 2016/17.
So we get something like
2016/17 Out £19m brought forward, plus say 40% of the 2016/17 purchase = £16m Total £35m out
2016/17 In £8m brought forward plus say 40-45% of Van Aanholt (£5m) + Kaboul Total £17m
Net ouflow £18m. Possibly a modest trading cash inflow with increased PL money (although £24m was received before the year end) and some wage reductions with some higher earners leaving in 2015/16. Possible overall cashflow even, but more likely a £5-10m outlow.
2017/18 Outflow £16m from 2015/16 plus £another £40% of the 2016/17 plus summer 2016/17 total £33m
Inflow £1m from 2015/16 plus remainder of Van Aanholt and 50% of Pickford, loan fees for Borini and the others (the transfer fee for Borini isn't payable until this summer Total £30m
Still leaves a transfer outflow of around £3m.
We go into next year with about £15m still owing on Pickford, and fees due on Borini, Lens N'Dong, etc. So, potentially up to £25-30m there.