Leicester City cannot complain about £140k p/w outlay given historic success: View | OneFootball

Jamie Vardy is the best-paid player in the Championship - as per Capology estimations - and it isn’t particularly close.

The forward is said to be earning £140,000 per week from Leicester City.

Given the club’s current financial predicament, that looks like a lot of money to pay for a second division player.

Leicester are under scrutiny for their compliance with the EFL’s profit and sustainability rules and could be set to receive a points deduction penalty if a breach is found.

The next highest-paid player is the Foxes’ own Harry Winks, earning £90,000 per week.

The midfielder is a key figure for the Leicestershire outfit, but his significance to supporters is vastly overshadowed by Vardy’s.

Leicester’s overall wage bill is estimated to amount to £1.1 million per week, which is more than six clubs currently in the Premier League.

It is no surprise that the club is competing for automatic promotion on that basis, as they have been able to pay figures that the rest of the division have been unable to afford.

The second highest wage bill in the Championship is Southampton’s, which amounts to a more modest £776,000-a-week.

Only the three clubs that traded divisions with the Saints last year, Sheffield United, Luton Town, and Burnley, are paying less in the top flight.

Leeds United’s wages amount to £704,000-a-week, with all three sides recently relegated from the top flight ahead of the rest of their Championship rivals in this table.

It makes Ipswich Town’s strong competition for a top two place look all the more impressive given their wage bill is just £259,000, having come up from League One last year.

On an individual basis, four of the top five highest earners in the Championship all play for Enzo Maresca’s side.

Vardy and Winks are joined by Kelechi Iheanacho and Ricardo Pereira in that top five, with only Cardiff City’s Aaron Ramsey in the same ballpark.

Eight of the top 10 are in Maresca’s squad, with Southampton’s Joe Aribo the only other player in that list not plying their trade at the King Power Stadium.

But, of those high wages, the one Vardy receives deserves the least scrutiny given his status as a club legend.

Vardy’s importance to Leicester

While the veteran forward is past his peak, he is still a very valued member of the dressing room and he is more than capable of contributing important goals.

With the team chasing promotion to the Premier League, he is one of the few remaining members of the side that originally earned a place in the top flight a decade ago.

The 37-year-old was the key man when the club secured their position in the top flight in 2015 in remarkable circumstances.

His 24 goals were key to their amazing Premier League triumph in 2016 (all stats from Fbref), and he was crucial to their routine finishes inside the top half of the table in the aftermath of that achievement, which also included multiple runs in Europe.

To cap it all off, he was a part of the team that won the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history in 2021.

His status as a club legend is not in doubt and that has earned him the right to receive a Premier League-level salary.

If the club needs to trim the wage bill in order to help their financial position, then Vardy's contract should not be seen as a sacrificial lamb, as he is still far too important to this squad to not keep around beyond its expiration date of this summer.