Every Premier League club ranked by their wage bill | OneFootball

Every Premier League club's wage bill for the 2023/24 season has been revealed - and, unsurprisingly, there's a gaping chasm between those at the top - namely the Manchester duo - and the lowest-paying teams such as Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town - all teams that were promoted last season.

There is so much money involved in the world of football in the modern day that fans would be forgiven for thinking every top flight team has endless amounts of cash to pay their playing staff. While some clubs do spend huge amounts on their wage bill, others do have a much lower ceiling when it comes to finances.

Many of the figures in question are bordering on astronomical, and they are only set to rise further due to the growing influence and competition posed by the wealth of the Saudi Pro League. Top players in England will be looking for a pay rise, or consider making a move to the Middle East for the lucrative contracts being handed out in that part of the world.

With that being said, very little sympathy can be felt for Premier League clubs that have almost taken over Europe in terms of financial power. Clubs that are seen as historically and traditionally bigger, do find themselves towards the top of the list, while the sides to have become Premier League sides in the more recent past are somewhat struggling to keep up.

The wage bills for each club come via FBref, with estimates coming from Capology. In the case of some clubs also, there is limited data out there, meaning some of the figures given are estimates. So, with that being said, GIVEMESPORT have taken a look at the annual wage bills of each Premier League club in order from lowest to highest.

20 Luton Town

Annual spend on wages: £24,570,000

The Hatters are embarking on their first ever Premier League campaign, and that is reflected in their lack of financial muscle in comparison to their fellow competitors, with them shelling out £24,570,000 on annual wages per season. Of the teams promoted from the Championship last season, they are the only one to have not played top flight football in the previous couple of years.

Boss Rob Edwards has a tough task on his hand to guide Luton Town to safety, with former Everton and Chelsea man - Ross Barkley - being the most notable signing in the summer window. The Englishman has been a superb coup for the Premier League minnows and, as things stand, are out of the drop zone.

19 Sheffield United

Annual spend on wages: £28,756,000

Two seasons in the Championship was more than enough for the Blades to lift themselves back into the top division in the English football pyramid, although finances remain tighter than 18 other clubs in terms of player salaries.

It is, however, around £4,000,000 more than Luton, although that is to be expected with some bigger names plying their trade at Bramall Lane in comparison to Kenilworth Road – with the likes of Rhian Brewster, Anel Ahmedodzic and Vinicius Souza as their highest-earning stars. Sheffield United, too, run the risk of dropping back down to the second tier and their change in manager may help them retain their status as a Premier League outfit.

18 Burnley

Annual spend on wages: £38,506,000

Vincent Kompany led his Burnley side to a league title in the second tier competition in England during his first season in the Turf Moor dugout. In doing so, the club secured a very healthy cash injection to go towards their business in the summer of 2023. To put it into perspective, however, the Clarets spend just over £400,000-per-week on paying their players, while some Premier League stars at the bigger clubs earn close to that themselves on a weekly basis.

Midfield duo Josh Brownhill and Jack Cork are their biggest financial spend with them both earning a healthy £2,340,000 a year, while Jay Rodriguez, Sander Berge and Josh Cullen all take home £2,080,000.

17 Brentford

Annual spend on wages: £39,936,000

If anything truly highlights the excellent job that Thomas Frank and his recruitment team have done – and continue to do - at Brentford, it’s that they have the lowest wage bill of any club to have played in the top tier last term, yet the Bees finished in the top half of the table rather comfortably.

Ivan Toney, the Bees marksman, is paid an usually low amount in comparison to some of the club’s top earners. After a promising start to the current campaign, Frank and his men find themselves in unfamiliar territory, sitting just above the relegation spots. The return of the aforementioned Englishman will boost their chances of survival tenfold with his goalscoring habits a welcome sight at the Gtech Community Stadium.

16 Bournemouth

Annual spend on wages: £53,794,000

It has been all change in the Bournemouth set-up since the start of the 2022/23 campaign, as the club have made many new signings in an attempt to keep themselves out of a relegation dogfight in the current season. Now Wolverhampton Wanderers custodian Gary O'Neil was replaced by Andoni Iraola during the off-season, with Justin Kluivert, now the highest earner at the Cherries, being the highest-earner brought in.

The Cherries are the first of the sides in the division to have a weekly wage bill of more than £1,000,000 and that is reflected on the pitch, too. They have ample firepower – most notably in the likes of Dominic Solanke – to ensure they stay afloat come May.

15 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Annual spend on wages: £53,820,000

A summer of turmoil at Molineux saw an exodus of both coaching and playing staff. Julen Lopetegui left his post as manager of the club shortly before the season kicked-off, while the key quartet Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Nathan Collins and Raul Jimenez all headed for the exit door, which will have actually seen a decrease in the annual wages at the club.

Pablo Sarabia stands tall as their highest-earning star on £4,680,000-per-year, while the likes of Nelson Semedo, Hwang Hee-chan, Daniel Podence and Matheus Cunha are all hot on his heels to earn that status. O’Neil will be hoping that the above players will end their season on a high by staying in the Premier League.

14 Brighton & Hove Albion

Annual spend on wages: £62,400,000

As is the case with Brentford, all credit has to go to Brighton & Hove Albion – and in particular, their recruitment genius - for the way in which the football club has been run from top to bottom over the years. Boss Roberto de Zerbi is set to lead his team into European competition this season while having a smaller wage bill than the majority of clubs in the English top flight.

With a very young squad in general, the Seagulls do not have many high earners on the books in comparison to other sides. Top of their list is Barcelona loanee Ansu Fati, with the side from the coast forking out £160,000-per-week for his personal wages.

13 Fulham

Annual spend on wages: £64,610,000

Having lost their talisman, Aleksander Mitrovic, to the riches of the Saudi Pro League in the summer transfer window, Fulham did, in turn, manage to shift some big wages off the books, all while bringing in Raul Jimenez from Wolves to replace the Serbian.

This means there may not have been a huge decrease in weekly wages spent, but a huge profit in terms of transfer fees. The aforementioned Mexican, Jimenez, is far and away their top earner, pocketing a cool £5,200,000 every year. Willian, 35, and Bernd Leno, 31, quickly follow the striker with pretty pay packets, highlighting that Marco Silva is clearly a fan of experience.

12 Crystal Palace

Annual spend on wages: £69,050,000

A resurgent Crystal Palace side turned their form around last season after Patrick Vieira's departure, with Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze being the main catalysts behind that up-turn in form. That said, Roy Hodgson has struggled to get a tune out of his players this season, leading to doubts over the veteran’s position as boss.

Wilfried Zaha was previously the biggest earner at the club until he left to pursue a new challenge in Turkey, while Olise was rewarded with a new deal to fend off interest from fellow London side Chelsea. He is now the club's joint top earner, alongside Eze and goalkeeper Dean Henderson, with £100,000 entering their bank accounts every week.

11 Nottingham Forest

Annual spend on wages: £72,050,000

Nottingham Forest secured promotion back to the Premier League in 2022 after over two decades away from the division. While some sides such as Luton are reserved in their transfer dealings following promotion, Steve Cooper's side brought in enough players to field two separate teams in the summer 2022 window. Bringing in plenty of experience from top flight leagues across Europe, the club were able to survive the drop - and even brought in a former Premier League and Champions League winner in Divock Origi, who is now their highest earner.

The Welsh boss, however, was relieved of his Forest duties earlier in the season and his replacement, Nuno Espirito Santo, has endured a mixed bag of results since his appointment. Whether the Tricky Trees can stick in the Premier League for the third season on the trot remains to be seen.

10 Everton

Annual spend on wages: £78,978,000

While Brighton and Brentford are often praised for being very well-run clubs that punch well above their weight from a financial standpoint, Everton are almost the complete opposite. This is at least the case in recent years as the Toffees have been capable of paying players big wages - with seven first-team members earning £100,000-per-week or more currently.

Their wage expenditure has not translated onto the pitch, however, as they have only just scraped safety in the top flight in the past two seasons - they will, however, struggle to manage that again thanks to their ten-point deduction this season. Jordan Pickford and Abdoulaye Doucoure earn £6,500,000 and £6,760,000, respectively, making them the two highest earners on the blue half of Merseyside.

9 Newcastle United

Annual spend on wages: £84,500,000

Ever since their well-documented takeover in October 2021, Newcastle United have been able to spend a lot more money than they had done under the previous regime. Eddie Howe has been trusted to bring in many players to build his ideal side for their European campaign this season, despite crashing out in the group stages.

A semi-finalist in the Champions League last season - Sandro Tonali - was among the top earners at St James' Park now after signing from AC Milan in the summer before his pay was suspended for gambling breaches. That aside, their increase in wage spending just goes to show the increasing power of the Tyneside outfit in the European game.

8 West Ham United

Annual spend on wages: £95,316,000

West Ham United are current European champions after successfully lifting the UEFA Europa Conference League title at the end of last season, and their wage bill has only increased ever since. Over the summer months, a massive transfer fee was received for Declan Rice from Arsenal - and that money was spent on several players, including Mohamed Kudus and Edson Alvarez, who have previous Champions League experience and therefore command bigger contracts than others at the club.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, it is Lucas Paqueta, Kurt Zouma and Danny Ings who lead the way as the club’s top earners with the former on £7,800,000-per-year and the latter duo on £6,500,000. If the Hammers are able to secure European football – in whatever shape or form – this season, it’ll be money well spent.

7 Aston Villa

Annual spend on wages: £117,000,000

After some of the summer transfer business they have carried out, it should come as little to no surprise to see Aston Villa shelling out so much on an annual basis in terms of player wages. Former Champions League players such as Moussa Diaby and Pau Torres were brought to Villa Park despite competition from many clubs to secure their signatures.

It is, however, former Leicester City star Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Clement Lenglet – who all take home £7,800,000-per-year – who are the club’s top earners as things stand. With Ollie Watkins firing on all cylinders once again, don’t be surprised to see him usurp the aforementioned trio some time soon with fresh terms.

6 Tottenham Hotspur

Annual spend on wages: £117,520,000

Considered a 'top six' club in England's best league, Tottenham Hotspur have just crept into the top six in terms of annual wage expenditure with just £520,000 spent more than the Villans. It is a well-mixed squad in terms of salaries because, while there are some high-earning players like Heung-min Son and Ivan Perisic, there are also plenty of younger players earning more moderate figures per week. It is the South Korean that still takes the crown as Spurs’ highest-earning player, with him taking home £9,880,000 per annum.

5 Liverpool

Annual spend on wages: £136,240,000

Mohamed Salah's new contract in 2022 saw the Egyptian marksman become the highest-paid player at Anfield by a significant margin. He brings home a basic salary of £350,000 each week, while the new club captain - Virgil van Dijk - earns £220,000-per-week.

The recent success of Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp has led to bigger contracts being earned by the players that have continuously put in performances on the pitch – and that will continue to be the case with them looking to add to their trophy collection in the German’s final season as boss. The likes of Thiago Alcantara, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson also make the top five earners at the club.

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4 Chelsea

Annual spend on wages: £155,324,000

There are, bafflingly, three other clubs in the English top flight that have higher wage bills than Chelsea - even after the Blues have spent more than £1 billion in the Todd Boehly era on the squad. Two separate £100 million+ signings have been made in that time with lucrative contracts also being handed out.

The departures of Kai Havertz, Mason Mount and Antonio Rudiger in recent years have helped keep the annual wages lower than expected, although they are the first team on the list to exceed the £150,000,000-per-year mark. Formerly of Manchester City, Raheem Sterling is the club’s highest earner on £16,900,000-per-year.

3 Arsenal

Annual spend on wages: £166,036,000

Arsenal came very close to pushing Manchester City all the way in the title race in 2022/23, but Mikel Arteta's men fell short in the final few weeks, eventually finishing five points off the pace. The decision to push on from that was made and a lot of money was spent in the summer to only add to the existing wage bill that includes big money for players such as Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka.

The wages of new signings – Kai Havertz and Rice - exceed £200,000-per-week each, taking their overall wage spend to a whopping £166,036,000. It’s unfathomable that the north London-based outfit are the third most affluent spenders - from a wages perspective - with that amount being spent annually.

2 Manchester City

Annual spend on wages: £200,668,000

The current champions of the division - the super wealthy Manchester City - are not the highest spenders when it comes to wages. Just north of £200,000,000 annually is more than twice as much as eighth placed West Ham pay their squad. Midfield magician Kevin De Bruyne earns almost as much per week as the Luton squad do altogether as the Belgian's contract is worth £400,000 weekly.

With a big spend comes a big reward, however, as Pep Guardiola has all but stamped his authority on arguably the biggest league in the world, winning countless Premier League trophies, while securing a treble-winning season last time out.

1 Manchester United

Annual spend on wages: £205,756,000

Topping the list are Manchester United. Not only are they the biggest club in England, but they are also just one of two clubs in the country that break the £200,000,000 barrier each year. With the amount of money brought into the club through various channels, there have always been big contracts on offer to play at Old Trafford and that is shown by the fact that six of the players in the side earn more than a quarter of a million each week.

Former Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro leads the way with an eye-watering wage of £350,000-per-week, while Raphael Varane and Marcus Rashford are not too far behind as they earn £340,000 and £300,000, respectively.