ManU boasts the "highest wage bill of all Premier League clubs," after new figures emerged showing the club paid £215.8M in salaries in '13-14, according to the London TELEGRAPH. ManU has overtaken Man City as the "biggest payers in the English top flight:" City's wage bill stands at £205M, while Chelsea is third highest with £192.7M. The lowest payers are Burnley, who boast a wage bill of just £21.5M -- one-tenth the size of ManU's. The wages costs and profits or losses of all top-flight clubs for '13-14 have "now been confirmed via annual accounts posted at Companies House and overall there is a close correlation between total salary bill and league position," with the current top four in the Premier League also the "four biggest payers" (TELEGRAPH, 4/21). To view the full table, click here.
MANU OVERTAKES CITY: In London, Simon Rice reported figures for the previous year had seen Man City "well out in front
in terms of wage spend," but while the most recent numbers show the
bill has been reduced from £233.1M to £205M at the Etihad, at Old
Trafford it increased by £35.3M (INDEPENDENT, 4/21).
BANG FOR THE BUCK: The PA reported Southampton is the club "punching heaviest" above its weight in the Premier League in terms of "performance compared with wages paid to players" while Chelsea is "also over-achieving." Saints are "only ranked 16th in the top flight in terms of their wage bill" -- £55.2M -- and "yet are currently seventh in the Premier League." Chelsea is "10 points clear at the top of the table" but is "only the third-highest" payer. The biggest under-achiever is QPR, with a £75.3M wage bill even from a season when it was in the Championship, making it "the eighth-highest payers -- yet they are down at 19th in the Premier League table." QPR's salary bill was "almost twice what the club earned in total last season." The combined accounts of the 20 clubs shows overall turnover rose to £3.07B from £2.3B in '12-13 with wages increasing too "but at a slower rate" and totaling £1.84B compared with £1.59B (PA, 4/21).
