Ranking every Premier League club by their annual wage bill from lowest to highest | OneFootball

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Every Premier League club's wage bill for the 2023/24 season has been revealed, with a massive gap between the highest paying club to the lowest.

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 be paying 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 the 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. It has to be kept in mind that the January transfer window could significantly change the numbers involved with both incoming signings and outgoings also. 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, we look at the annual wage bills of each Premier League club in order from lowest to highest.

20 Luton Town - £3,662,000

Luton Town manager Rob Edwards looks on

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 competitors. Of the teams promoted from the Championship last season, they are the only one to not have played top flight football in the previous couple of years. Rob Edwards has a tough task on his hand to guide Luton to safety with former Everton and Chelsea man - Ross Barkley - being the most notable signing in the summer window.

19 Sheffield United - £13,302,800

Two seasons in the Championship was enough for the Blades to lift themselves back into the top division in England, although finances remain tighter than 18 other clubs in terms of player salaries. It is almost £10,000,000 more than Luton, although that is to be expected with some bigger names plying their trade at Bramall Lane in comparison to Kenilworth Road.

18 Burnley - £20,978,000

Vincent Kompany led his 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 health cash injection to go towards their summer business. To put it into perspective however, the Clarets spend just over £400,000-per-week to pay their players, while some Premier League stars at the bigger clubs earn close to that themselves on a weekly basis.

17 Brentford - £34,398,000

It just goes to highlight the excellent job that Thomas Frank and his recruitment team do at Brentford to have the lowest wage bill of any club to have played in the league last year, yet the Bees finished in the top half of the table rather comfortably. There are no suggestions that they will look to slow down either after making a good start to the 2023/24 season.

16 Wolves – £41,600,000

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 key men such as 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.

15 Brighton – £47,268,000

As is the case with Brentford, all credit has to go to Brighton for the way in which the football club has been run from top to bottom in recent times. 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.

14 Fulham – £47,580,000

Having lost their talisman - Aleksander Mitrovic - to the Saudi Pro League in the summer transfer window, Fulham did shift some big wages off the books while bringing in 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.

13 Bournemouth – £48,594,000

It is all change at Bournemouth 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 dog-fight in the new season. Gary O'Neil was replaced by Andoni Iraola during the off-season with Justin Kluivert being the highest-earner brought in. The Cherries are the lsst of the sides in the division to have a weekly wage bill of less than £1,000,000.

12 Crystal Palace – £52,150,000

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. 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 Chelsea. He is now the clubs top earner at £100,000-per-week.

11 Nottingham Forest – £59,050,000

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.

10 Everton – £74,662,000

While Brighton and Brentford are often praised for being very well run clubs that punch well above their weight in financial terms, 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, but have only just scraped safety in the top flight in the past two seasons.

9 Newcastle United – £85,800,000

Ever since the takeover in October 2021, Newcastle 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 coming up this season. A semi-finalist in the Champions League last season - Sandro Tonali - is among the top earners at St James' Park now after signing from AC Milan in the summer. This just goes to show the increasing power of the Tyneside outfit in the European game.

8 West Ham United – £90,480,000

West Ham are 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. A massive transfer fee was received for Declan Rice, 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.

7 Tottenham – £91,000,000

Considered a 'top six' club in England's best league, Spurs miss out in terms of annual wage expenditure as there are six teams to pay their players more. It is a well mixed squad in terms of salaries because while there are some high earning player like Heung-Min Son and Ivan Perisic, there are also plenty of younger players on more moderate figures per week.

6 Aston Villa – £99,840,000

It is possibly not a surprise to many that Aston Villa pay their players more than Tottenham do after some of the summer transfer business they have carried out. 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.

5 Chelsea – £128,804,000

There are bafflingly four clubs that have higher wage bills than Chelsea, even after the Blues have spent more than £1 billion in the Todd Boehly era on the playing 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 times have helped keep the annual wages lower than expected, although theu are the first team on the list to exceed £100,000,000-per-year.

4 Liverpool - £134,940,000

Mohamed Salah's new contract in 2022 saw the Egyptian become the highest-paid player at Anfield by a significant margin. He brings home a basic salary of £350,000 home each week, while 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 to have put in the performances on the pitch.

3 Arsenal - £155,896,000

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. 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 - Havertz and Rice - exceed £200,000-per-week each.

2 Manchester City – £192,712,000

The current champions of the division - the super wealthy Manchester City - are not the highest spenders when it comes to wages. Almost £200,000,000 annually is more than twice as much as sixth placed Aston Villa pay their squad. Kevin de Bruyne earns almost as much per week as Burnley as the Belgian's contract is worth £400,000 weekly.

1 Manchester United - £200,996,000

Manchester United may be the biggest club in the land, and they are also the only club in the country to pay more than £200,000,000 to their players 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 six of the players in the side earn more than a quarter of a million each week.