Birmingham City failed their financial tests - after Stoke City failed to off-load Jack Butland last summer.
The St Andrew's club were hammered with a nine-point penalty by the Football League this week after missing their profit and sustainability targets.
The Blues had posted losses just shy of £10m – and that was the figure used by the authorities to levy their points' penalty.
But Mirrorsport can reveal that Brum were relying on the sale of the England international to balance the books.
Birmingham had a sell-on clause included in the deal which saw Butland join the Potteries club six years ago.
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They were banking on the Potteries' club moving on Butland last summer when Stoke were relegated from the Premier League.
Reports suggested that Liverpool and Chelsea were both interested in a player who would have commanded a fee in excess of £50m – and that calculation was included in the workings they submitted to the Football League.
But the Reds moved for Alisson Becker – laying out £66.8m for the Roma stopper. While the west Londoners raided Athletic Bilbao for Kepa, shelling out over £71m for the 24-year-old.
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That scuppered any chance of Birmingham using the money to break even on debts that breached their profit and sustainability limits by £10m.
The Blues were due 20 per cent of the profit on any fee from a player they sold to their north Staffordshire rivals for just £3.25m when they were struggling to survive the carnage wrought by then owner Carson Yeung who was eventually convicted of money-laundering.
Had Butland made either of those big-money moves, then the cash would have enabled Brum to break-even and escape the mess for which they were punished this week.
