West Ham have been revealed to still owing £70m in player transfers from the 2018/19 season.
The Hammers spent a club-record £90m during the 2018/19 summer transfer window, with just £20m of that having since being paid into the appropriate hands.
Over £74m was splashed on record signing Felipe Anderson, Issa Diop and Andriy Yarmolenko, while further money was parted with on the likes of Lukasz Fabianski, Lucas Perez and Fabián Balbuena. That massive outlay was enough to secure West Ham a 10th-place finish in the Premier League.
According to Football Insider - who have analysed the club's accounts - the extent of their expenditure during Manuel Pellegrini's debut season in charge still weighs heavy on the club. For the year ending 31 May 2019, roughly just 18% of that spending spree has been paid.
The club had revealed a £28m loss in their most recent financial results, this coming despite recording a turnover increase of £15m to £191m.
Amid financial uncertainty for all Premier League clubs as a result of the coronavirus crisis, news of the Irons' finances make for a precarious position as fears arise that top flight clubs could be set to lose a combined £750m if the season were brought to an immediate end.
While it is not rare - and in fact fairly common - for clubs to stagger multi-million pound payments for players over a number of years as a means to ease the strain on a single accounting season, the news nevertheless comes at an unfortunate time.
Prior to that campaign, West Ham had been profitable in four of the last five seasons, this despite spending £214.4m net on new player acquisitions over the last four years.
While that spending spree earned the club their highest league finish in three years, the situation has since gone downhill.
Pellegrini was relieved of his duties back in December with the club fighting a relegation battle, and David Moyes' return to the helm has done little to help, with the east London outfit languishing in 16th - level on points with 18th-place Bournemouth.
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