Premier League wage bill hits record £4bn – with hapless Man Utd’s bloated budget revealed…where does your club rank?

PREMIER League wages hit a record £4billion last season, a new study has discovered.

It means the 500 stars who make up Britain’s top league pocketed an average of £8million a year during 2023/24.

And Manchester City players were the Prem’s top earners, taking home a combined £413million.

The figures have been collated by football blogger Kieron O’Connor, who runs The Swiss Ramble football finance blog.

He says striker Erling Haaland is city’s top earner after negotiating a deal worth £500,000 a week in January.

Liverpool came runners-up in the pay stakes, with the Anfield squad taking home £377million.

Mo Salah is the club’s top earner and recently banked a pay rise after committing his future to Anfield, taking him to £400,000 a week.

All Premier League clubs have revealed their accounts from the 2023/24 season, with the figures showing the post-Covid pay bubble continues to climb.

The clubs’ combined wage bill has jumped from £2.9billion in just six years, the equivalent of 38 per cent.

The wage bills also show the Big Six became the Big Five, with a huge gap opening up between the highest-paying sides.

Kieron reveals City and Liverpool are joined by Man Utd (£365million), Chelsea (£338million) and Arsenal (£328million) in the huge pay stakes.

Aston Villa had the sixth-largest wage bill, which came in at £252million — a gap of £76million to Arsenal.

Tottenham and Newcastle also paid out more than £200million.

This year’s FA Cup winners Crystal Palace were the league’s highest achievers last season, finishing tenth despite only four clubs having a smaller wage bill.

Man Utd underachieved, finishing eighth, despite having the third- largest wage bill.

The three clubs with the lowest wage bills were relegated last season — Luton Town, Sheffield Utd and Burnley.

Luton’s wage bill was the lowest in the league, paying out £57million to its squad.

The figures were released before today’s final round of games, with Liverpool already crowned champions.

‘A bit crazy’

While Haaland himself admitted his salary was “a bit crazy” when his new ten-year deal was announced in January, wages of the best Prem stars are well below that of other sporting stars around the globe.

A study by Forbes magazine put Haaland 27th on the list of top earners when comparing him with greats such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.

And his money pales into insignificance when compared to NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who signed a £410million deal in 2021.

And last December the New York Mets baseball team agreed to pay slugger Juan Soto £628million for a 15-year deal.

Clubs must remain vigilant as there is still much work to be done to restore pre-pandemic profitability

Aleksander Ceferin

Haaland’s outgoing teammate Kevin De Bruyne has previously told how he believes top footballers are underpaid, despite earning £400,000 a week.

When asked in 2022 if he got paid too much, the Belgian linked with a move to Serie A winners Napoli, responded: “No. I compare it to a singer at a concert and 60,000 people come. I look at it logically.

“There are millions of people watching the football on TV, there’s 60,000 watching the games, the income of a club is £500million to £600million. Yeah, it’s a lot of money, but is it too much?

“If the club can afford it, it’s not too much.”

In March, figures revealed player wages across Europe had reached £15.1billion in 2023/24, up by 6.5 per cent on the previous year.

Following the release of the latest Uefa Club Licensing Benchmarking Report, the governing body’s president Aleksander Ceferin warned teams about paying excessive amounts to their players.

‘Players are the stars’

He said: “While most clubs appear to be managing player wage increases responsibly, other costs are rising rapidly, putting greater pressure on operating margins than ever before. Clubs must remain vigilant as there is still much work to be done to restore pre-pandemic profitability.”

Premier League clubs have to pay within Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) each year or face punishment.

Everton and Nottingham Forest faced points deductions for breaching the rules.

In February, it was reported the Professional Footballers’ Association, which acts for players, threatened the Premier League with legal action if it brought in a salary cap.

Clubs voted last year to explore the introduction of a spending cap from the start of the 2025/26 season as part of a new system of financial controls.

It will limit clubs to spending 85 per cent of their total revenue on wages, transfer payments and agent fees.

Sponsorship consultant Nigel Currie said: “The players are the stars, they are the talent and the reason millions tune in every week and buy the kits.

“The Premier League is hugely successful, the wealthiest football league in the world, and that will continue.

“There will continue to be massive financial implications for players. Sponsorships will go through the roof in terms of value.”