How much Plymouth Argyle spend on wages every week on average (Estimated) | OneFootball

We take a look at the Greens' expenditure on players' salaries, and how they compare to the rest of the Championship

It is no secret that Plymouth Argyle have one of the smallest budgets in the Championship, with owner Simon Hallett doing all he can to try and run the club sustainably while competing with the great and good of the EFL.

While those relegated from the Premier League can rely on parachute payments to keep their finances in check, the lifelong Argyle fan continues to seek investment from overseas into the club he loves so much, so they can regularly compete in the second tier.

As it is, the Pilgrims have to be canny in the transfer market to pick up hidden gems and exploit the loan market just to make a fight of it since their promotion from League One in 2023, with extravagant transfer fees not something seen often in Devon.

With that in mind, we took a look at just how much the Home Park outfit are forking out each week to their players in the 2024/25 season, using Capology to help with the estimates, and see how they compare to the rest of the division.

Plymouth Argyle’s weekly player wage bill

In total, the Greens are estimated to spend £172,800 per week on players’ salaries, which equates to just shy of £9 million over a 12-month period.

That takes in all players from the highest earners, Bali Mumba and Adam Forshaw on £15,000 for every seven days of work, to academy graduates Caleb Roberts and Will Jenkins Davies, who pick up just £1,000 with every pay packet they receive.

On average, that works out at £6,400 per player, with defender Lewis Gibson slap bang in the middle of the structure, with his £6,500 a week, with star man Morgan Whittaker also close to the centre of the pack on £7,500.

A short-term deal for Andre Gray on £12,500 makes the former Watford man one of the highest paid players at the club until his contract elapses in January, while captain Joe Edwards signed a new deal earlier in the season, to see his wages rise to a reported £10,000 a week.

Boss Wayne Rooney is said to pocket £500,000 a year according to a report from The Guardian, which equates to a figure in the region of £9,600 a week, which puts him in the same bracket as Edwards, as well as Mustapha Bundu and Victor Palsson.

How Plymouth Argyle’s weekly player wage bill compares to the Championship

As expected, Argyle sit right down the bottom when it comes to weekly expenditure on players, with only League One Champions Portsmouth estimated to spend less this season in the second tier, with John Mousinho’s side paying just £138,500 to their playing personnel.

The Greens are the only other side to have a budget below £200,000, with Queens Park Rangers third lowest on £208,462, while Oxford United (£211,115), Coventry City (£212,731), Swansea City (£231,192) and Millwall (£231,769) all have money to burn in comparison.

Seeing the figures in black and white, makes the Greens’ feat of staying up on the final day of last season even more impressive, and shows the harsh reality of what they have to come up against, week in, week out, in the second tier.

Those mentioned previously are only the sides that they can hope of being compared to though, with the biggest spenders of the Championship spending more in a week than Argyle do in a month, as Leeds United’s estimated £708,000 weekly expenditure proves.

To put things into context, Patrick Bamford [pictured] is the highest earner in the division on £70,000 a week, according to these estimates, and within five weeks he will earn more than the average Plymouth Argyle player earns in a year. Make it make sense.

After Leeds, you have Burnley spending the big bucks trying to secure an immediate return to the Premier League, with the Lancashire outfit forking out £596,000 a week to their diamond-encrusted stars, with West Bromwich Albion third on the list with £441,500 being put into players’ bank accounts on payday.

In total, Championship players are estimated to be paid £7.58 million each week, and an eye-watering £394.4 million a year, which is absolutely bananas when you come to think of it. No wonder you have to pay through the nose for a half-time pasty at Home Park these days.