Premier League champions Liverpool have a lower annual wage bill than Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea according to industry estimates.
It’s believed that Arne Slot’s Reds squad are paid somewhere in the region of £155million a year – some way off Manchester City’s estimated £230million annual wage spend.
Liverpool finished 14 places higher than Manchester United last season, doubling their arch rivals’ points tally, but they go into the new campaign spending roughly £20million less on wages per year. It’s fair to say they’re getting more bang for their buck in terms of wage outlay.
It’s been an interesting summer for Liverpool, who have reshaped Slot’s squad in major ways. On the one hand, they’ve got the wages of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez off their books – but new additions Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong will presumably be taking home a decent wedge.
Should the champions bolster their defence as expected, alongside a statement-making attacking signing such as Alexander Isak, you imagine that Liverpool’s wage bill could inch up towards Arsenal’s and Chelsea’s.
Manchester United’s bloated wage bill is surely set to come down further by the end of the summer, with big-name players Jadon Sancho, Anthony and Alejandro Garnacho all set to depart this window.
For years, the ‘big six’ boasted the league’s six biggest wage bills in the league. But that’s changed in recent times, with Aston Villa inching above Tottenham in the wage spend table.
Newcastle United are still some way off the wage outlay of the league’s traditional powerhouses as they attempt to work their way around the PSR regulations, but the newly minted Magpies pay their players more than the Premier League’s middle classes.
At the other end of the scale, Wolves, Everton and Brentford are among the league’s lowest spenders, while this season’s newly-promoted trio – Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland – unsurprisingly spend the least.
Sunderland are estimated to spend less than one twentieth what Manchester City do on their wage bill, with their whole squad reportedly earning less than the league’s top earner Erling Haaland. We would take the Black Cats’ figures with a pinch of salt, for now, though.
It is worth noting that this table is liable to change in the coming weeks and months ahead.
Of course, the transfer window remains open for another couple of weeks and squads are set to be reshaped further by the start of September. We might see some high-profile sales or big-money signings shift things considerably.
It’s also important to note that these are only industry estimates and might not be strictly accurate, but they ought to give us a broadly correct picture in terms of the placings in the table and how the clubs stack up against one another in terms of their wage outlay.
We’ll be keeping this one updated as further signings
Here’s a full breakdown of every Premier League club’s annual wage bill ahead of the 2025-26 campaign:
Figures are taken from FBref, who source their data from Capology.
1. Manchester City — £230,464,000 (€264,513,211, $305,374,018)
2. Manchester United — £178,932,000 (€205,367,771, $237,092,057)
3. Arsenal — £169,208,000 (€194,207,130, $224,207,367)
4. Chelsea — £167,154,000 (€191,849,664, $221,485,736)
5. Liverpool — £155,896,000 (€178,928,390, $206,568,437)
6. Aston Villa — £120,276,000 (€138,045,819, $159,370,512)
7. Tottenham — £101,218,000 (€116,172,152, $134,117,900)
8. Newcastle United — £88,920,000 (€102,057,219, $117,822,558)
9. West Ham — £79,586,000 (€91,344,197, $105,454,632)
10. Brighton — £71,786,000 (€82,391,809, $95,119,322)
11. Crystal Palace — £70,356,000 (€80,750,535, $93,224,514)
12. Nottingham Forest — £67,236,000 (€77,169,580, $89,090,388)
13. Fulham — £63,232,000 (€72,574,022, $83,784,929)
14. Bournemouth — £57,928,000 (€66,486,397, $76,756,918)
15. Wolves — £50,700,000 (€58,190,520, $67,179,529)
16. Everton — £48,552,400 (€55,725,629, $64,333,873)
17. Brentford — £38,740,000 (€44,463,526, $51,332,048)
18. Leeds United — £38,142,000 (€43,777,179, $50,539,673)
19. Burnley — £30,940,000 (€35,511,141, $40,996,738)
20. Sunderland — £10,132,000 (€11,628,925, $13,425,304)
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