Liverpool's pandemic cost counting goes on.
The news that the club lost over £45million for just three months of a worldwide crisis that has gone on for over a year will no doubt come as a grave concern for fans.
How could it not?
The behind-closed-doors model of football continues to hit the Reds hard, while the three-month absence of Premier League football between March and June of 2020 has been a hammer blow to all top-flight clubs.
Commercial revenue continues to thrive, at least, with Liverpool posting an increase of £29m to £217m with further partnerships that include Cadbury and sustainable food waste management giants, Iugis.
Despite that one area of positivity, there can be no escaping the fact that Liverpool, like every other football club, have been forced to face up to big losses during an unprecedented time.
But while there will be some understandable anxiety around headline figures for the year ending May 31, 2020, it's perhaps important to countenance that with the fact that this latest information is nothing new to the club.
Supporters will gasp at the eye-watering sums, but those on the inside have been working towards a solution for some time.
It is why Fenway Sports Group 's recent partnership with RedBird Capital is so vital to Liverpool's short-term future.
Anfield sources indicated to the ECHO earlier this month that the club expects to lose £120million as a result of the pandemic.
The early indications of Tuesday's accounts show that figure to be an accurate one.
The owners of the club chose to carry these costs in the form of additional debt, borrowing against FSG as opposed Liverpool itself, with the thought process believing that the American group was more diversified in its revenue streams.
From a borrowing perspective, the move was a prudent one, enabling the Reds to continue operating without being saddled with further debt as a result of the sizable losses.
The external debt that shot up from £50m to a whopping £198m as they reacted to the fallout of the pandemic's arrival has already seen a significant chunk repaid by the club.
The RedBird agreement sees them take ownership of 10 per cent of FSG's assets to the tune of £538m, providing a timely injection of significant capital at a time when all clubs are posting big losses.
Tuesday's figures go some way towards explaining why principal owner John W Henry was so determined to be part of the Super League shake up last week, even if the American's aim was ultimately a hugely misguided one.
After all, it is hard for any hard-nosed businessman to turn down an annual share of around £300m for the following 23 years, even if the controversial proposals did little but cast a long shadow over the dozen clubs who were attempting to split.
These latest figures, regardless of how some may be taken aback by their stark nature, have continually been managed behind the scenes at Anfield for some time now.
And the message continues to be that RedBird's arrival will simply allow Liverpool to carry on with a 'business as usual' mindset this year.
The Anfield Road expansion will be unaffected and the planning process is still very much ongoing for the club as they aim to add a further 7,000 seats to their iconic stadium.
Quite what this means for the transfer window is an intriguing one, though.
Club sources have been keen to stress that RedBird's involvement will allow them to work the same as in previous years, but the level of investment during recent windows has been sporadic.
Three years ago, the club embarked on the biggest spending spree in their history, forking out close to £170m for Alisson Becker (£65m), Fabinho (£40m), Naby Keita (£52m) and Xherdan Shaqiri (£12m).
That quartet arrived a little over six months after Liverpool had smashed their club-record fee by more than double by landing Virgil van Dijk for £75m from Southampton.
Twelve months later, however, a much more modest outlay was the order of the summer as youth prospects Harvey Elliott and Sepp van den Berg joined alongside free agent Adrian.
Takumi Minamino's signature was snared at a cost of just £7m from Red Bull Salzburg at the end of 2019.
In 2020, Liverpool were forced to bide their time and conducted business late in the window as Diogo Jota and Thiago Alcantara arrived in mid-September with the Premier League already underway.
The duo's combined sum of around £70m was offset by sales of Rhian Brewster (£23.5m), Dejan Lovren (£11m) and Ki-Jana Hoever (£13.5m).
And if Liverpool fail to qualify for next season's Champions League, it will almost certainly hurt their ability to operate as freely as they would like in the transfer market.
But Tuesday's accounts are simply presenting the world what those at the club already knew.
Take our Super League survey and have your say on the future of football here
Liverpool's ace in the hole remains FSG's new agreement with RedBird, but how much that will be leaned on by John Henry and co this summer will have a big bearing on what happens next at Anfield.
FSG have always aimed to have Liverpool run as a self-sufficient club, an admirable aim during the era of the widespread sugar daddies.
But their ongoing development under Jurgen Klopp is now delicately balanced.
Can FSG muster a response?
After the chaos of last week's Super League farce, some may say that is now an obligation.
