How Luton Town, Plymouth Argyle and Cardiff City's wage bills will compare to the rest of League One | OneFootball

Comparing the relegated Championship trio's wage bills to the rest of the clubs in League One

Luton Town, Plymouth Argyle and Cardiff City are all now planning for life down in League One next season.

The Hatters have suffered the indignity of back-to-back relegations, coming 18th in the Premier League last year and now 22nd in the Championship.

Meanwhile, Plymouth will return to the third tier after just two seasons in the second division.

The Bluebirds have not competed at this level since 2003, and will be hoping to make short work of their time outside of the top two tiers.

Here we use estimated figures from Capology to compare the wage bill of this relegated trio with the teams they’ll be competing against in League One in the next campaign…

Luton Town, Cardiff City and Plymouth Argyle wage bills

Luton have the biggest wage bill of the three relegated clubs, and in fact the Hatters have the fourth highest in the entire division.

The club are paying £454,000 per week to their first team squad, which is only bettered by the likes of Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United, who all earned over 90 points this season.

The highest paid player in Matt Bloomfield’s squad is Tahith Chong, with the forward earning £30,000 per week, with Jacob Brown and Marvelous Nakamba also receiving the same figure.

Cardiff’s weekly salary is also among the highest in the second division, with the Welsh outfit paying £402,115 per week, the seventh most of any team at this level.

The Bluebirds finished bottom of the Championship table, earning only 44 points from 46 games.

Aaron Ramsey is their highest paid player, earning £50,000 per week, while also becoming manager for the final games of the campaign, although it wasn’t enough to keep their position in the division.

Meanwhile, the Pilgrims have the second lowest weekly wage bill in the Championship this season, paying the squad £186,000.

Plymouth’s highest paid permanent player is Bali Mumba, with the 23-year-old earning £15,000-a-week.

League One’s top earners

Birmingham City earned promotion straight back to the Championship, winning a record 111 points along the way.

Given their dominance of the division, it will come as no surprise for people to discover that the Blues have had the biggest wage bill this season, paying £308,000 per week to their squad.

The Midlands outfit pay more per week to their team than 13 of the teams competing in the Championship this season, meaning their ambitions will surely to be fighting in the top half of the table over the coming 12 months.

Wrexham also earned automatic promotion, with the Welsh outfit paying £205,200 per week, a greater sum than Plymouth spent on their squad.

Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United were the two clubs to suffer relegation to League One last season, along with Birmingham, and the Terriers have the second highest wage bill in the division as a result, totalling at £220,169 per week.

The Millers are fourth in this table, paying £137,150, which earned them an underwhelming 13th place in the actual standings.