Paul Barber has paid tribute to chairman Tony Bloom following publication of the club's latest annual accounts last night, which showed his investment in the club is now more than £400m.
The club made a loss of £67.2m in 2019/20, and the club's deputy chairman and chief executive attributed around £25m of those losses directly to the global pandemic.
But he has also explained to supporters, who might be concerned by the numbers, that while the future is uncertain due to the current pandemic, the club can be cautiously optimistic about building on its progress of recent years.
Barber explained, "Firstly and most importantly it underlines how lucky we are to have Tony Bloom as our chairman, someone who is prepared to continually underwrite investment in the club to this level.
"Of course, before Covid-19 hit us, we were expecting to lose more money this year than the one previous, when we were already up to £21 million in the last set of accounts.
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"We knew that this set was going to be even higher for a couple of reasons: the amortisation of some of the player contracts and transfer fees that we've absorbed since we've been in the Premier League.
"Another important factor is that we've held onto our best players to build the best possible squad. It makes sense, when you're investing and not selling, you're always going to have an impact on your numbers; and for that we are extremely grateful for Tony's continued investment.
"More than £25 million of the losses that we've announced this week are directly related to the pandemic. That's a combination of rebates on television fees, lost gate receipts, as well as matches being shifted into a different financial year, when the season was delayed beyond the end of June.
"In addition to the extra losses, we have also had added costs of trying to keep the club running during the pandemic, while keeping the stadium, the training ground and all of our staff safe.
"It's been the hardest time I have ever known in football. Not just for us, but for the whole of the football industry. Our losses are comparable to other clubs of a similar size, so we don't feel we've been any worse affected than anyone else.
"When you're investing in and not selling players, the numbers are going to be pretty big. Again, we're very fortunate that Tony is in a position and has a willingness to cover those losses at this time."
Barber did move to reassure supporters who might be concerned by the large losses, and says while it has been a hard road, there is a bright future ahead.
"The club is in a very good position in terms of the assets we have on our balance sheet. The players that are in our squad aren't valued in our accounts anything like the market would pay for them if we were in a position or needed to sell them, so that's the first bit of comfort.
"The second is that we have got an owner and a chairman that loves this football club from the bottom of his heart, and doesn't have any need or desire to want to sell it or do anything with it, so we're very fortunate.
"We've also got in place one of the best coaches in the country, combined with one of the youngest squads in the Premier League. That with a great academy and a fantastic infrastructure and facilities, there aren't many football clubs that we would want to be at right now other than this one.
"There is light at the end of this tunnel. The vaccine has provided us with that light, they've provided us with that hope. Again, it's going to require all of us to keep following the guidelines and doing our little bit to get us through this period.
"Then hopefully at some point in the not-too-distant future we can see those packed stands at the Amex again on a beautiful sunny day when there's football to be played, and friends and family to enjoy the game with.
"It seems a long time away, but it isn't. Hopefully, it will be in this calendar year that we start to see that return, and in the meantime, we have got to do whatever it takes to keep ourselves and each other safe.
"It's undoubtedly been a testing time for all clubs, but this is a fantastic football club, at a really exciting time in its history with a great owner, fantastic facilities, great players, coaches and staff, and we're really looking forward to the future.
"We know that it's going to be tough to stay in the Premier League – it always is. It's the best league in the world, the hardest to compete in.
"But we do compete in it and anybody that saw our game at Manchester City, or our game against Liverpool earlier this season, or the Manchester United or Chelsea games, will know that we're not just in this league to make up the numbers, we're here to compete.
"We won't always get the wins that we need or want or in some cases deserve, but we're certainly going to be fighting in every game to get them.
"Most fans realise that we have got to be patient, that at this level wins are going to be hard to come by, and there aren't always going to be the results that you hope for as a football fan, week-in, week-out.
"I would rather us competing at the highest level, than easily winning games at a lower level. That doesn't really prove anything. We've got to be patient and stick together to work through the more difficult results and periods, because when we do get the wins, they are worth celebrating and are very much there to be enjoyed."