Owner Hallett lends Plymouth £9.8m after relegation

Plymouth Argyle owner Simon Hallett has lent the club £9.8m since they were relegated to League One.

The club's annual accounts, which were released on 23 December, show the Pilgrims made a profit of £478,000 to the year to 30 June 2025.

That figure is an improvement on the loss of more than £2.4m on the previous year, but is only thanks rise of around £8.9m of income due in part to just under £8m worth of player sales.

Michael Cooper, Morgan Whittaker, Lewis Gibson, Adam Randell and Ryan Hardie were sold during the period, which saw them relegated from the Championship after two seasons in the second tier.

The club's record £18m wage bill - a rise of £3m on the previous season - was 73.7% of revenue, which rose to a record £28.8m thanks in large part of a new television deal for the English Football league.

The club also parted company with former England captain Wayne Rooney as head coach, with the club paying him compensation - the accounts do not stipulate how much the former Manchester United player was paid.

Successor Miron Muslic also left the club in June with German side Schalke paying the Pilgrims a fee, which again is not broken down.

"2024-25 was a disappointing year on the pitch as our men's first team suffered relegation from the Championship after two seasons," Hallett said, in notes published with the accounts.

"That outcome was particularly disappointing as it was the first season in several years in which we failed to get results that were significantly better than were implied by our football budget.

"Our strategy has been based on outsmarting our opponents, not outspending them, and in 2024-25 we failed."

Hallett leant Argyle £9,808,539 from July 2025 onwards, in addition to £2,628,961 in the club's second season in the Championship - a total of £12,437,500 since July 2024.

Under Hallett's leadership the club has continued to invest off the field with £5m spent on infrastructure including the new Foulston Park training ground development at the Brickfields and work at Home Park stadium.

As well as selling around £8m worth of player Argyle spent in excess of £5.5m on players over the period, with Michael Baidoo, Maksym Talovierov and Rami Al Hajj among those joining the club.

All three have since left - two on permanent deals and Baidoo on loan.

"We also continue to invest in data-driven recruitment strategies that align with our player trading model," added Hallett.

"This approach, which focuses on identifying and developing talent for future resale, allows us to maintain a competitive playing squad without overextending financially.

"In tandem, our long-term capital investments, such as the development of our new academy at Brickfields, serve to strengthen the club's operations."