Premier League wages: Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal – who pays the most?
Robin Bairner
- 5 Mar 2022 10:47 GMT
- 3 min read
The Premier League is the richest in world football, with the majority of the game’s biggest transfer deals done by England’s elite clubs.
Similarly, Premier League teams pay some of the biggest wages in the world game, with the traditional Big 6 of Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham undoubted financial heavyweights.
Throw Newcastle into the mix after their takeover by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and there is little sign of the grip that the Premier League holds over the world game loosening.
But which clubs pay the most in wages?
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Although the specifics of individual players are not officially revealed, each club has to file its accounts at Companies House and from this it can be ascertained which pays its players the most.
For the 2020/21 season, it is Manchester City that comes out on top of this table, with an astonishing £355 million paid out per year. This works out as a weekly wage bill of nearly £7m.
Coming in second are Chelsea on £333m ahead of Manchester United, whose £323m spend per season failed to land them a serious title challenge but did at least allow them to return to the Champions League. Despite surely increasing that spend this season with the additions of Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Red Devils have had little return.
Premier League 'Big 6' wage table
| Annual wage bill (£m) | |
|---|---|
| Man City | 355 |
| Chelsea | 333 |
| Man Utd | 323 |
| Liverpool | 314 |
| Arsenal | 244 |
| Tottenham | 205 |
Meanwhile, Liverpool continue to receive excellent value for money on their £314m per season wage bill. The Reds actually saw this figure from the 2019/20 campaign, though that was likely as a result of bonus payments for winning the league not being required.
Arsenal are well off the pace of the elite four. Their salary total of £244m is approximately only two-thirds of that being spent by City.
Spurs, meanwhile, pay only £205m per year in wages.
