Saints are set to land their biggest ever cash jackpot to top off a great season at St Mary’s.

The club are predicted to earn just shy of £80m for their second season back in the top flight if they can ensure they finish in eighth place, which in the process will equal their best ever Premier League era campaign.

It is an incredible achievement given that today marks the five-year anniversary of the club being formally placed into administration, with its very survival hanging by a thread.

After that period of uncertainty the takeover by Markus Liebherr and subsequent investment has fired Saints from League One into mixing again with the Premier League big boys.

That has totally reversed Saints’ declining fortunes and they are reaping the financial rewards.

Though new Saints director Hans Hofstetter sounded a cautionary tone over the latest set of accounts filed at Companies House this week, mainly due to the spending on the training ground and outstanding transfer fees, the progress that has been made is remarkable.

In the first season after the Liebherr takeover Saints generated revenue of £14.8m. That rose to £71.8m at the end of last season.

It will be dwarfed again by the cash raked in from the current campaign thanks to another increase in TV revenue.

West Brom finished eighth last season and banked just over £48m.

Though the exact figures depend on TV broadcasts etc, Saints can expect between £75m-£80m if they hit the same spot this season.

Even the league’s bottom team are expected to collect around £60m – the same as Manchester United received for winning the title last year.

It is also all a far cry from the early days of the Premier League.

After their first season in that era in 1992/93 Saints were paid £9.4m.

That included prize money of £185,000 for finishing 18th. Manchester United won the title and won prize money of £815,000, less than is up for grabs for each place you climb in the Premier League table this season.

It is the TV deals that make the biggest difference to Premier League incomes.

In that first League One season after the Liebherr takeover Saints banked just less than £1m in broadcast income. Last season that had risen to £46.9m.

Of course that has come at some cost as the wage bill has also almost quadrupled from £12.3m to £47.1m.

Saints have continued to record losses throughout the last four seasons but with revenues, attendances, broadcast and match day income all going up, there are also plenty of positive signs.

Certainly the significance of the remaining six games of this season could mean a difference to the club of more than £1m just for finishing eighth rather than ninth.=