Man Utd biggest flops based on wage bill in Premier League; even with caveated Ratcliffe figure

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s nonsense about the Manchester United salary bill has inspired us to emphasise once again how much better their players and Ruben Amorim should be doing.

It turns out Man Utd have the most overpaid squad in the Premier League. Who’d have thought it?!

To determine this, we have taken the Premier League’s salary bill ranking and compared it to the actual table to calculate the discrepancy and rank the clubs from biggest underachievers to overachievers.

Manchester City, for example, have the biggest wage bill and are fifth in the league, meaning they are underperforming by four places.

Essentially, how overpaid/underpaid are each Premier League club? Figures come from Capology.

20) Man Utd (-11)

Premier League position: 14th

Salary ranking: 3rd (£171m)

The perfect outcome, all things considered.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe believes Ruben Amorim is doing an “excellent job” considering the players he does not have at his disposal. Using current Chelsea and Aston Villa loanees Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, on top of injury-prone duo Luke Shaw and Mason Mount, as an excuse to reduce what he deems as an “available” salary bill simply does not fly.

Ratcliffe’s caveated salary bill of “probably about £130million” is still more than Liverpool’s actual salary bill – even if the United co-owner wants you to believe it’s £200million – and they are top of the Premier League by 15 points. He also argued that injuries and loans mean Amorim is playing with a squad on the same level as Nottingham Forest and Everton, which is quite spectacularly wrong.

It’s all just a load of guff and we are more than happy to call Ratcliffe out on it. If their salary was in fact £130m, Man United would have the fourth highest wage bill, not third, which would still have them bottom here but a vastly improved 10 spots worse off than 11. Bravo.

READ MORE: Ranking Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s 17 Man Utd f***-ups: 3) Ruben Amorim, 4) Dan Ashworth, 8) Kath Phipps

19) West Ham (-8)

Premier League position: 16th

Salary ranking: 8th (£90m)

The Hammers had an expensive summer, signing Niclas Fullkrug, Crysencio Summerville, Max Kilman and seven others to considerably increase their wage bill. The departures of Thilo Kehrer, Said Benrahma and Angelo Ogbonna will have helped but not significantly.

Expectations were obviously high going into 2024/25, with several exciting new signings and the appointment of a new manager, but West Ham have been bitterly disappointing, sacking Julen Lopetegui and replacing him with Graham Potter when 14th in the Premier League. So…they are doing worse? With that wage bill? It’s time to start a narrative.

=17) Tottenham Hotspur (-6)

Premier League position: 13th

Salary ranking: 7th (£112m)

A ‘Big Six’ club should probably be in the top six for total player salaries, but that is not the case with Spurs; they are below Aston Villa, who are a Champions League outfit to be fair.

Being one place out of the top six in the actual table is hardly the end of the world but being seven places below is pretty catastrophically horrendous and questions must be asked. With Spurs’ highest earners coming back from injury, Ange Postecoglou is under pressure.

=17) Leicester City (-6)

Premier League position: 19th

Salary ranking: 13th (£66m)

Given the lack of quality throughout Ruud van Nistelrooy’s squad, it is pretty surprising to see Leicester have a higher wage bill than seven other Premier League clubs.

A lot of their budget is paid on attacking players and given Jamie Vardy has been there through thick and thin, we imagine the 37-year-old is on a fair whack. Capology says it is £140,000 per week. And Odsonne Edouard and Harry Winks apparently take home £90k a week! Gulp.

16) Everton (-5)

Premier League position: 15th

Salary ranking: 10th (£72m)

With five players earning £100k per week, Everton are underperforming according to their wage bill, yet looking at their squad and the performances under Sean Dyche, you can’t help but feel David Moyes is actually doing very bloody well with what he has got.

15) Man City (-4)

Premier League position: 5th

Salary ranking: 1st (£223m)

Being sixth in the five-year Premier League net spend table is very impressive given Man City’s success in that time but falling so dramatically to fifth and scrambling for a Champions League spot is baffling and very much not good.

Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne’s yearly salaries alone would rank higher than the bottom two clubs, Brentford and Ipswich Town.

=12) Aston Villa (-2)

Premier League position: 8th

Salary ranking: 6th (£124m)

Villa are in the Champions League so their high salary and mid-table Premier League season is no surprise.

=12) Southampton (-2)

Premier League position: 20th

Salary ranking: 18th (£48m)

These guys can’t get anything right!

=12) Wolves (-2)

Premier League position: 17th

Salary ranking: 15th (£57m)

Nobody at Wolves earns six figures a week and the only player who deserves to be anywhere near that is Matheus Cunha.

=10) Arsenal (0)

Premier League position: 2nd

Salary ranking: 2nd (£179m)

These guys are doing just as you’d expect, which is absolutely fine. No underachievement confirmed. Mikel Arteta in. ‘Win’ the dog in. Vic Akers out.

=10) Chelsea (0)

Premier League position: 4th

Salary ranking: 4th (£162m)

Chelsea’s colossal spending in the transfer market does not equate to an over-inflated wage bill, with a lot of players’ contracts including performance-based bonuses.

Eight players earn more than Cole Palmer, who is comfortably their best and most important player.

=8) Fulham (+1)

Premier League position: 10th

Salary ranking: 11th (£71m)

Could Fulham be any more mid-table? Well, they could be 10th for salary, come to think of it.

=8) Crystal Palace (+1)

Premier League position: 11th

Salary ranking: 12th (£68m)

Lovely stuff from Oliver Glasner.

7) Ipswich Town (+2)

Premier League position: 18th

Salary ranking: 20th (£40m)

Ipswich are fighting above their weight in every sense.

6) Newcastle United (+3)

Premier League position: 6th

Salary ranking: 9th (£93m)

Newcastle have the richest owners in football but their spending has been restricted by those pesky PSR rules. The biggest positive to come out of that is undoubtedly breaking into the top six here. In your face, Red Cartel.

5) Liverpool (+4)

Premier League position: 1st

Salary ranking: 5th (£129m)

So, Liverpool are going to win the league in Arne Slot’s first season with a wage bill lower than Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea. Should they extend Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah’s contracts, the Reds will probably still be fifth and with that in mind, they should probably just give in to Salah’s demands.

READ MORE: The outrageous statistics of Mohamed Salah: Most goal involvements in Premier League season

=3) Brighton (+7)

Premier League position: 7th

Salary ranking: 14th (£60m)

So Brighton, this. Always making those big licks look bad.

=3) Brentford (+7)

Premier League position: 12th

Salary ranking: 19th (£42m)

Would you believe us if we told you Aaron Hickey is Brentford’s highest earner? Bryan Mbeumo is apparently sixth, Mikkel Damsgaard ninth and Yoane Wissa 17th. They are so good, guys. So, so good.

2) Bournemouth (+8)

Premier League position: 9th

Salary ranking: 17th (£51m)

Just when we thought there were no new reasons to praise Andoni Iraola, Sir Jim Ratcliffe opens his mouth and we do some maths.

1) Nottingham Forest (+13)

Premier League position: 3rd

Salary ranking: 16th (£55m)

Being third in the Premier League, Forest were always going to be in the top five at the very least here. Yet, 16th in the salary rankings is pretty surprising considering the club’s hectic transfer activity since returning to the top flight in 2022.

Nuno Espirito Santo knows his strongest XI and his squad has been significantly trimmed down, so much so that no team has used fewer players in the 2024/25 Premier League (23).

We can’t rule out Ratcliffe simply lying to Gary Neville or being disastrously wrong, but his claim that the depleted Manchester United squad are “sort of level with the likes of a Nottingham Forest or Everton” is embarrassing.

MAILBOX: Neville ‘failed’ to push ‘arrogant’ and ‘completely out of touch’ Ratcliffe as he used ‘Trump playbook’

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