Aston Villa have managed to reduce the club's financial losses as the full impact of its relegation from the Premier League in 2016 can now be seen.

New annual accounts for Aston Villa Football Club Ltd show a loss of £7.5 million for the year to May 31, 2017, a significant improvement on the £29.6 million it posted for the 2015/16 season.

This drop in losses was underpinned by a £26.6 million profit it made on offloading players during the season.

Villa's losses have reduced since Tony Xia bought the club
Villa's losses have reduced since Tony Xia bought the club

In the season following their relegation, Villa sold players including Idrissa Gueye, Scott Sinclair, Adama Traore, Ciaran Clark, Rudy Gestede and Jordan Ayew.

However, turnover for 2016/17 was markedly down on the previous year, from £106.7 million to £71.1 million as revenue from match days and other commercial avenues all fell.

Villa finished 13th in the Championship last year and, perhaps unsurprisingly, its first season in English football's second tier in three decades saw average attendances dip from 34,133 to 32,018 in 2016/17.

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This contributed to a £2.9 million drop in gate receipts to £10.7 million.

Other key commercial revenues also took a hit as a result of the club losing its Premier League status including broadcasting income falling by £17 million to £48 million while sponsorship dropped by £9.1 million to £2.7 million.

Other commercial revenue, such as merchandise, royalties and corporate entertaining, fell from £16 million to £9.6 million.

Staff at the club also had to bear the brunt of the relegation with the average number of monthly full-time employees falling from 348 to 226 while the total number employed by the club dropped from 1,428 to 889.

Fans will no doubt welcome the stark drop in wages paid to members of the club's boardroom with total salary packages for directors dropping from £4.6 million to £357,000, fuelled in large part by the departure of Tom Fox during the 2015/16 financial year.

These latest results are the first following the takeover of the club by Chinese investors Recon on June 14, 2016, led by Tony Xia.