As English top-flight football bathes itself in lucre thanks to Sky TV money and jaw-dropping corporate sponsorship, some once-illustrious clubs in Ireland are taking a different type of financial bath. Take relegation-threatened Bohemians, for example, which recently filed accounts. Bohs fans, beware: it is grim reading.

The Dublin club thought it was in for a €65 million bonanza in 2006, when Liam Carroll’s Zoe Developments struck a deal to redevelop Dalymount Park. We know what happened with the Irish property market. The club is still in situ.

Bohemians’ plight is laid bare in the latest figures. It sits on losses of €4.7 million, mountainous when revenue is just €867,000 and corporate sponsorship just €130,000. The directors acknowledge insolvency – it has a deficit in assets of €2m. It has debts of more than €5 million, including €4.3 million owed to a Zurich bank.

The club went semi-professional to cut its wage bill. To execute the strategy, the directors explained they needed a manager who could develop youth. “So we brought in Aaron Callaghan, and the rest, as they say, is history.” Rather, it is Callaghan who is history. Bohs sacked him on Monday.