The TOP FIVE Clubs With The Highest Wage Bills In The Premier League (2022/23)

David Tully

11 months ago

Categories: Galleries, Manchester City News

Tags: Arsenal, aston villa, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, leeds, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Southampton, spurs, West Ham, wolves

Premier League players take home eye-watering sums in terms of their basic salaries.

Without including signing on fees and sponsorships, stars still earn wages that they could not hope to get in most other countries, and the evidence for that is shown in the club’s payrolls.

For this list, we will be taking our information from data gathered by sport investment fund Alliance.

Press the next page as we go through the highest wage bills in the English top flight this season.

5) Arsenal – £110,396,000

The Gunners have certainly been punching above their weight this season, if we compare their wage bill to their league finish.

While they do have some high earners on the wage bill, including Thomas Partey, they have managed to dramatically cut their ongoings over the past two to three years.

The likes of Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (who took home sizeable pay packets) are no longer at the club.

Handing new deals to the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Aaron Ramsdale and (potentially) Martin Odegaard will inevitably lead to Arsenal’s payroll increasing.

4) Liverpool – £164,580,000

The Reds gave Mo Salah a club record £350,000 a week contract last summer so they have had to throw some money around to keep their top stars.

Virgil van Dijk, Thiago, Alisson Becker, Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all believed to be earning pretty high salaries too.

With investment needed to get Liverpool back into the top four, they may have to increase their wage bill further to encourage new signings to join them.

Even so, the Merseysiders are still pretty disciplined in terms of paying their players compared to some clubs higher up on this list.

3) Manchester City – £186,160,000

It is believed that Kevin De Bruyne earns the highest wage in the Premier League, while Erling Haaland isn’t far behind.

The Citizens are pretty smart when handing out new contracts, though, usually offloading players who are demanding sizeable salary increases.

The likes of Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling were both let go last summer, while it appears captain Ilkay Gundogan could be allowed to leave on a free transfer next month.

Considering they have won the league five times in the last six years, it is surprising to see that they are not top of the Premier League payroll list.

2) Manchester United – £213,330,000

The Red Devils don’t use a lot of restraint when it comes to the wages of first-team players.

There are around ten earning £200,000 a week or more, including David De Gea, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.

The wage bill would be even higher if Cristiano Ronaldo was still at the club but his £380,000 a week salary was taken off the books in January.

It will be interesting to see whether the club’s next owners will have a different attitude when negotiating player contracts.

1) Chelsea – £216,644,000

Not many will be surprised to see the Blues top this list, after two transfer windows of lavish spending.

It should be emphasised that Chelsea don’t have as many top earners as others in the top five. However, the sheer size of the first-team squad means that the salaries just pile up.

There are reports that some players will take pay cuts after failing to qualify for the Champions League.

Whether that will reduce the payroll enough so they don’t finish top next season, we shall have to wait and see.