Watford forced into selling £40m Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal target

Watford may have to sell star names Abdoulaye Doucoure or Richarlison this summer, despite recording a £4million profit for 2016-17, according to reports.

The club’s finances were boosted by the £20million sale of frontman Odion Ighalo to Chinese club Changchun Yatai, while 88 per cent of their revenue now comes from TV income.

But with owner Gino Pozzo’s business model based on discovering bargains and then selling them on for a huge profit, it looks inevitable that the Hornets will look to cash in on £6m Doucoure this summer – with Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham all said to be keen on the £40m-rated midfielder, according to a report in the Daily Mirror.

Watford’s healthy finances seem to have confounded critics who believed that their ridiculously high turnover of managers at Vicarage Road would drain their resources.

Marco Silva became the ninth manager to leave Vicarage Road in six years when he was sacked in January, with Watford paying around £1.1m to release Silva’s predecessor Walter Mazzarri and his backroom staff last year.

Although the club’s wage bill climbed 31 per cent to £76m, their wages to turnover ratio remained steady at 61 per cent.

In his report, executive chairman Scott Duxbury said: “As in the previous year, the financial performance of the club is reflective of its progression in the Premier League.

“Turnover continues to grow significantly, as do the increased running costs associated with running a successful business within the Premier League.”

More from Planet Sport:

The tiresome moralising from Team Australia, World Cricket Police will not stop‘. (Cricket365)

This time, Tiger’s comeback is for real‘. (Golf365)

Looking back at L’Equipe’s 2013 top 10 predictions – did Federer feature? (Tennis365)