It’s a common joke that football only started with the formation of the Premier League, but how has football and the money spent on it changed since the Premier League began in 1992?
BetVictor Football have analysed the player wage bills of every club to have ever played in the Premier League since 1992 to find out.
Explore the interactive dataset below to discover how efficient your club has been with wage spending for the entirety of, the past ten seasons of, the past five seasons of and the first 10 seasons of the Premier League.
This is Premier League Wages.
Team
Sum of wages
Average finishing position
Average wins per season
Average cost of a win
It’s official: Chelsea are the biggest all-time spenders on player wages in Premier League history. Spending over three billion on salaries, the London club has spent more than league stalwarts Tottenham Hotspur and Everton combined.
Manchester United have spent the second largest amount on wages since the Premier League’s inception, paying out £2.8billion in wages down the years, with Arsenal and Liverpool completing the top four at over £2.3billion apiece.
While anyone can spend money, it’s more important to spend it effectively. Over the past few years Wolves have been consistently one of the most efficient spenders, paying just £2.8million per win, a far cry from the £9.7million of Manchester United.
The 2019/20 season was a big one for Sheffield United however, where they paid just £965,714 per win, the lowest amount since the 1997/98 season!
The Table Below Details the Top Six Clubs Total Wage Bill Over the Past Five Seasons (2015/16 – 2019/20) Versus Finishing Position and Wins:
| Club | Sum of wages | Average of finishing position Premier League | Average of Won | Total wins | Average of Cost per Win |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | £789,552,000 | 4.6 | 20.8 | 104 | £7,591,846 |
| Man United | £784,364,000 | 4.75 | 20.25 | 81 | £9,683,506 |
| Arsenal | £735,080,819 | 5.2 | 19.4 | 97 | £7,578,153 |
| Man City | £734,535,000 | 2.25 | 23.75 | 95 | £7,731,947 |
| Liverpool | £732,984,000 | 3.8 | 24.2 | 121 | £6,057,719 |
Based on the past five seasons, if you’re the owner of a Premier League football club and have ambitions of playing in the UEFA Champions League, you’ll need to spend a minimum of £140 million per year on player wages to have any hopes of qualifying via the top four Premier League places.
For the first ten seasons of the Premier League (92/93 – 01/02), you could win the league by spending an average of £27 million on player wages to guarantee a first-place finish.
However, as of the past five seasons (15/16 -19/20), the required wage bill has increased to a mammoth £136 million, although in recent years it appears to also be around £10million cheaper to win the league, than finishing runners up.
| All Time | Past 10 Seasons | Past 5 Seasons | First 10 Seasons | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £ 99,764,964.11 | £ 164,557,090.91 | £ 136,437,000.00 | £ 27,708,099.50 |
| 2 | £ 98,616,990.46 | £ 162,491,090.91 | £ 146,762,000.00 | £ 24,524,173.30 |
| 3 | £ 14,662,428.57 | £ 153,359,454.55 | £ 141,504,000.00 | £ 25,164,400.00 |
| 4 | £ 77,815,390.57 | £ 134,327,272.73 | £ 136,080,200.00 | £ 20,351,293.60 |
| Average of top 4 | £ 72,714,943.43 | £ 153,683,727.27 | £ 140,195,800.00 | £ 24,436,991.60 |
| 5 | £ 65,137,911.68 | £ 117,612,024.82 | £ 147,803,054.60 | £ 18,857,625.40 |
| 6 | £ 70,606,027.19 | £ 128,136,598.36 | £ 138,838,054.60 | £ 23,320,138.00 |
| 7 | £ 49,231,113.46 | £ 87,833,545.45 | £ 59,174,800.00 | £ 15,412,093.00 |
| 8 | £ 51,538,371.19 | £ 91,305,038.64 | £ 115,511,054.60 | £ 14,488,328.22 |
| 9 | £ 38,573,115.12 | £ 58,501,234.70 | £ 56,747,750.00 | £ 14,772,895.22 |
| 10 | £ 44,996,372.89 | £ 75,545,890.64 | £ 93,940,600.00 | £ 13,291,469.90 |
| 11 | £ 39,888,411.69 | £ 58,528,663.09 | £ 69,199,640.00 | £ 16,714,831.00 |
| 12 | £ 40,574,833.33 | £ 66,500,086.36 | £ 77,883,131.20 | £ 13,311,302.44 |
| 13 | £ 37,822,237.61 | £ 59,616,636.36 | £ 59,445,400.00 | £ 16,024,095.80 |
| 14 | £ 40,364,101.67 | £ 60,615,758.64 | £ 68,932,800.00 | £ 13,790,975.89 |
| 15 | £ 38,718,339.85 | £ 55,918,943.73 | £ 58,308,533.20 | £ 14,344,061.88 |
| 16 | £ 36,405,767.19 | £ 54,470,502.73 | £ 54,002,200.00 | £ 11,414,856.00 |
| 17 | £ 34,935,611.22 | £ 58,928,206.00 | £ 58,986,222.80 | £ 10,333,519.00 |
| 18 | £ 32,527,003.81 | £ 51,465,124.45 | £ 58,316,433.40 | £ 9,498,219.00 |
| 19 | £ 32,737,804.24 | £ 49,711,384.64 | £ 59,551,760.00 | £ 13,613,437.43 |
| 20 | £ 34,594,848.83 | £ 58,654,784.70 | £ 59,217,969.40 | £ 7,233,705.33 |
Club financial data sourced frsourced from Companies House records and Sportrac, and cross referenced against the Financial Times Database. Where clubs dropped out of the Premier League due to relegation, financial records for this season have not been counted. For the instances where financial records have not been accessible for a given club in a given season, the club and their Premier League performance for that season have not been included in the data analysis.
The data includes wage bills from each Premier League season up until the 2019/20 season.
Additional club financial data available upon request.
Premier League performance data sourced from Premierleague.com.