Liverpool has reported a £21.8m increase in their debt, along with a loss of £40.5m in its annual accounts. The overall debt of the club now stands at £87.2m.

The accounts show that although commercial revenue increased, so did the club's overall liabilities.

However, managing director Ian Ayre played down the significance of a rise in debt levels.

"It's definitely not something I believe anyone should be worried or concerned about. It is seasonal - our debt goes up and down," he told the Liverpool Echo.

"We have money to pay out and money coming in, just like any business.

"The difference in football is some of the swings are significant, so if you look at player trading, we may need to make investments as we do in the summer before our key revenues come in: big sponsorships cheques, big ticket revenues, all the media revenues etc.

"You come to Christmas when you maybe have less revenue coming in but you have got money that needs to go out, both on playing deals that you are doing at the time but also on historic player deals."

Mr Ayre added: "We need to continue to improve our squad and what a lot of people won't relate to perhaps is that when you are improving your squad and making that investment, you have knock-on costs that will create debt in the short term.

"We will continue to invest in the squad - I think that is what our fans would expect.

"But the most important thing is that we do it prudently and in a sustainable way that is affordable."

Contributing factors to the increase in debt were player instalment payments plus exceptional payments of just over £9.5m - relating to matters such as the stadium project, general restructuring and pay-offs to senior employees who left the club.