Barnsley chairman Maurice Watkins has revealed Barnsley incurred losses of £2.1m following relegation from the Championship in May.
The club, who lost their second tier status after eight years suffered the majority of the losses following the change of management staff throughout the doomed 2013-2014 season.
David Flitcroft was sacked as manager in November 2013 after winning only three of the opening 17 matches of the season and replaced by Danny Wilson, whilst over the course of the following six months coaches Micky Mellon and Ian Willcock were replaced by Chris Hutchings and Mark Crossley.
Speaking to the Insider website Watkins wrote:
“The cost of changing the football management staff was considerable.”
Many Reds fans were concerned with the length of time it took Wilson to invest in the squad during this close season but the club has also revealed financial constraints meant they had to wait until they got the highest earners off the books and sold star striker Chris O’Grady to Brighton as the wage bill had grown from £7.7m at the end of the 2012-2013 campaign to £8.7m after the board had backed previous manager Flitcroft following his successful survival mission, including investing heavily to sign O’Grady and winger Dale Jennings.
Watkins also revealed relegation to League Two (Barnsley sit just three points clear of the League One drop zone) would mean even more tightening of the belt and for the foreseeable future, Barnsley FC will remain "financially dependent and will continue to be dependent upon" the support of owner Patrick Cryne.