FOR all the talk about things like profit and revenue in Saints’ accounts, chief executive Gareth Rogers knows there is one thing supporters care most about when it comes to the club's finances, and that is how much is being invested in the team.

It is a point he wants to be clear about.

"We have categorically reinvested everything we have received in sales of players in the past two years,” said Rogers.

The latest figures, which cover the year ending June 30, 2015, show that the St Mary’s Football Group made a profit for the second year in succession, coming in at £12m – the previous year's total of £33.4m after tax was the first time since coming out of administration that the club had not declared a loss.

The results for 2014/15 incorporate the money received from the sales of Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Calum Chambers, but do not include Nathaniel Clyne and Morgan Schneiderlin, who left after the reporting date.

While Saints finished the summer bottom of the Premier League’s net spend table, Rogers insists the focus simply on transfer fees is misleading, and that the club have put back every penny they have received from their sales, “be it [for] transfer fees, deal costs, such as agents fees and transfer levies – which is four per cent of every transfer deal you have to pay – be it wages to existing players to enhance their contracts in order to tie them down to longer contracts, or be it wages for new players, in order to bring them into the club.

"We believe we have a much stronger squad, but naturally that cost for that reinvestment is there, and that's shown within the wages that have grown this year. Whilst there are some one-off costs in the wages this year, the underlying wages have grown £6m, and the majority of that is within the players."

Indeed, the overall wage figure for the group has increased from £55.2m to £70.8m, now representing 63.4 per cent of turnover – up from 59.3 per cent.

The total does include £8.3m relating to "the cost of onerous and cancelled contracts", of which a significant proportion was the termination of Dani Osvaldo's deal, but it also shows a notable jump.

Saints finished last season in seventh position - a Premier League record for the club - despite operating with only the 16th largest wage bill in the division.

Rogers says he does not believe wages correlate 100 per cent to finishing position, and that Saints will not risk long-term trouble by breaking their structure for one or two players, while he also points to making sure that every aspect of the club - from scouting, coaching and sports science, down to things like nutrition and education - is as strong as possible to encourage players to both come to Saints and also to stay.

But closing the gap on the big sides in terms of wages they can pay would undoubtedly be welcome.

Rogers says the reality is that, while Saints earn huge amounts from the Premier League's broadcast income, they must also tap into other revenue streams in order to move closer.

"Whilst we may have very, very, very large broadcasting income within the Premier League, every club has it," said Rogers. "Therefore, you have to do something else in order to differentiate yourself and therefore the commercial income is important as a result of that."

That commercial income is one of the highlights of the accounts, with Saints having seen it grow by 21.3 per cent, to £10.1m.

Improving in that area has been a huge point of focus since the changes at boardroom level were made in early 2014, and such a relative rise in a short space of time is hugely encouraging.

Yet there is still some way to go to catch, or at least close the gap, on many of their Premier League counterparts.

Rivals for European places such as Liverpool and Tottenham reported commercial revenue of £103.8m and £56.2m respectively in their last set of accounts, while a number of others are still far ahead. Aston Villa, for example, stood at £25.7m, Newcastle at £25.6m, Sunderland £16.8m and Stoke £14.4m.

Rogers knows it will take time, and believes the years ahead will start to see truly significant progress, but he believes Saints are very much on the right track.

"I would say we're definitely at the start of that journey," he said.

"It can be a slow process, there's no two ways about it. When you look at commercial contracts, a) the first one has to finish and b) you're not going to get companies to commit to multi-million pound deals on the whim of one conversation.

"These conversations can take a long time to evolve and a long time to develop and, therefore, we do expect it to be the future years where you really do start to see this commercial growth."

That in turn should provide Saints with greater resources to spend on the squad, both in terms of transfer fees and the other various costs.

"Don't forget, investment is never just in transfer fees, despite the misconception that gets put out there about net spend," said Rogers.

"It helps with wages, it helps with agents' fees, it helps with transfer levies and it helps with transfer fees.

"All those areas are investments in players, but it's also investment in facilities that attract players as well, but, absolutely, the more you can generate in commercial revenue the stronger your first-team conceivably should be.

"Naturally, you have to have good scouting, good training, good coaching, but the talent you could afford naturally is greater if you have a greater commercial income, relative to other clubs."

While there are many positives, Saints' debt position has also increased in the last year, with a loan from Macquarie Bank replacing a Vibrac loan for £19m that was taken out in 2012, as the club says it offers them better terms, while Liebherr has also injected a further £20m loan in the reporting period that Saints had already disclosed would be coming in.

Prior to these accounts, the amount owed to Liebherr had stood at £29.2m.

Daily Echo:

Saints owner Katharina Liebherr and chief executive Gareth Rogers at St Mary's

Given how quickly the club has grown in the last few seasons - it is still only five years ago they were in League 1 - it is perhaps little surprise they are carrying some notable debt, but the board are keen to address it and believe that it has now peaked and will be coming down in future years, rather than going up.

"The debt as a whole for the year stands at just over £62m," said Rogers. "When we spoke about the previous set of accounts, we forecast this would increase.

"It's not actually increased as much as we thought it would do, due to good governance and various other things, but we believe it's now at a point whereby all the any past historical transactions that created the majority of this debt have now started to wash through and we now have a sustainable plan to be able to reduce that debt over time.

"As a whole, there's a long-term plan over the next four or five years to reduce that debt, because fundamentally as a business we don't want to be carrying that level of debt, even if it is to the owner, or the majority of it to the owner."

But Rogers is relatively at ease with the situation.

"We're well aware people might look at the debt and say 'That's a large figure', but it's not a figure that we're worried about. It's a figure that's under control, it's a figure that we aim to reduce over time, but on a managed way so it doesn't affect the on-field success of the business."

ST MARY’S FOOTBALL GROUP FINANCIAL RESULTS 2014/15

Profit of £12m

Profit on ordinary activities before interest and tax of £17.6m

Balance sheet total net assets of £43.8m (up from £31.8m)

Revenue of £113.7m (up from £106.1m)

Commercial income of £10.1m (up by 21.3 per cent)

Matchday income increased by £1.2m

Total wages of £70.8m (up from £55.2m), including the cost of onerous and cancelled contracts from historical player trading of £8.3m

Excluding one-off exceptional costs, operating costs to turnover would sit at 85.5 per cent, whilst staffing costs to turnover would sit at 63.4 per cent

Player trading includes exceptional costs of £6.6m relating to the impairment of player registrations from historical player trading

The group’s future debt position has increased to just over £62m due to previous investment commitments, but is lower than anticipated