Report – What the salary figures mean for Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United

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The City bench will make most teams jealous

Manchester City have been named as the best paid team in global sport after Sportingintelligence released a Global Sports Salaries Survey.

Chelsea and Manchester United also appeared on the list with the Blues coming in at eighth and Manchester United forming the bottom of the top twelve with twelfth place.

Football clubs pay their stars the best wages in the history of the game but the figures could have a number of knock on effects for each club ahead of the 2013/2014 Premier League season, with justifiable crticism of salary figures.

Here’s what it means if you support either of these three sides.

Manchester City

Manchester City pay each player £100,764 per week on average which equates to an overall wage bill of around £5,239,750 on a weekly basis.

That won’t be a surprise to many people as City have the cash which allows them to throw that sort of money at their playing squad but the negative thing it creates at the club is immense pressure.

City head into next season with no guarantee that they are going to wrestle the Premier League title back from Manchester United or fend off the challenge from a Jose Mourinho led Chelsea.

The pressure is two pronged; there is pressure on the team to win and put silverware in the trophy cabinet and there is big pressure on the club to sort out wages and get a firm grip on them.

With Uefa proving how serious they are over Financial Fair Play in the case of Malaga, it’s an aspect of club life which City cannot allow to spiral out of control.

Chelsea

Chelsea’s weekly wage bill comes to £4,058,742 which works out at roughly £78,053 per player.

You couldn’t be blamed for expecting that amount to be much higher than it already is because of the money Roman Abramovich has available and the constant demand for success he asks from his managers.

Roman Abramovich

What that means for Chelsea is they have a little room to breathe. The numbers are still alarmingly high but their situation is not even close to Manchester City’s at the moment.

It means Jose Mourinho can go unafraid into the transfer market, looking for the best players, paying the highest fees and then putting those stars on a good wage deal at Stamford Bridge.

It means if you’re a supporter, you shouldn’t expect the club to back off in terms of the transfers they go after this summer.

Mourinho has only just walked into his second spell in charge of Chelsea but the success that his management guarantees and the small amount of room he has in terms of wages effectively means he can ask for whoever he likes.

It also shows that Chelsea are managing the situation and trying to get good value over simply throwing money at contracts and players to get them to stay or sign.

Manchester United

United have an accumulative wage bill of £3,921,987 which works out at £75,423 per player per week on average.

It’s important to remember that United are in a completely different financial situation to their two main rivals for the Premier League title next season.

They will be competitive this summer and they can afford decent wage deals but they don’t have the scope and length of rope which is enjoyed by City or Chelsea.

It’s also a result of something Sir Alex Ferguson banded on the club so well during his reign in charge, that ability to decipher between what a player is worth and how much leeway to leave in terms of modern financial football standards.

United already have a very good squad heading into next season and there will be one or two additions but they are in no immediate danger when it comes to FFP because of their global revenue streams and commercial pulling power.

Are you alarmed by the figures?

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