Championship wage bills 23/24 published

[Graham Clark]

The top 5 in the money league all in the top 5 of the actual league.

All of those clubs have the benefit of parachute payments from the Premiership although Ipswich are the outlier but we don't know how much of their recent financial external investment was actually paid in an enhanced playing budget.

A latest available study on the impact of parachute paymnentsbbased on independent research from Sheffield Hallam University carried out for the EFL looked at Championship clubs from 2016 to 2021. it is doubtful much has changed in the last two seasons.

As well as finding clubs were now three times more likely to be promoted if they received parachute payments, it also said:

Clubs received £233m in parachute payments in the 2020-21 season, an average of £33m per club.

• The average revenue of clubs without parachute payments was circa £20m
• Clubs receiving parachute payments generated an average points gap of +16 in 2020-21
• The average points gap over the five seasons, for clubs in receipt of parachute payments, was +8.6
• Clubs that have parachute payments are far less likely to get relegated from the Championship than those that do not have them
• "Parachute payments continue to distort Championship competition, fuelling losses at clubs who are simply trying to 'keep pace'."

It is easy to get depressed about the distortion of parachute payments but the EFL's Profit & Sustainable rules are beginning to bite, albeit too late for any points deduction this season. It will happen, particularly for any club that fails to get back into the Premiership in three seasons. We are closing the gap on the non-parachute payment clubs in the Championship as we continue to maintain revenue growth at a level better than many of our competitors.

However, our weakness remains in player trading. Much was made of Swansea's recent losses but within days of the financial year closure they got £10.4m rising to £16m for Piroe's sale to Leeds. We are nowhere near achieving that level of receipt although this close season may prove differently. We have just got to hang into our Championship status - the building blocks are there for an incremental creep up the Championship rankings as per our latest 5-year plan. We just need to ignore the top six and their riches or so and concentrate on competing with the other 17 clubs where we can genuiely close the gap season by season and the financial 'playing field' gradually begins to level out as the Profit & Sustainable rules continue to provide some genuine financial restraint.

 

[Rowlypilgrim]

Very interesting and a sober reality check for us.

Just reinforces my belief that this whole parachute payment system is blatantly unfair, borders on creating a cartel. The sooner this rigged system is overhauled in favour of a more level playing field the better.

Noticeable that Stoke dramatically under performed against playing budget and much as I think he is a prat, McKenna has really done well at Ipswich.

 

[SurreyJanner]

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere, just thought it was really interesting seeing published figures for the spending of all the other clubs in our division, and comparing it to ours. Not neccessarily the order I thought, some clubs have spent considerably more than I’d expected. You'd have to say Ipswich have done very well with the money they've spent too


1. Leicester City – £60,190,000

2. Southampton – £40,014,000

3. Leeds United – £39,513,000

4. Norwich City – £24,196,000

5. West Bromwich Albion – £23,060,000

6. Cardiff City – £19,444,000

7. Stoke City – £18,340,000

8. Watford – £14,952,000

9. Sheffield Wednesday – £14,584,000

10. Middlesbrough – £13,582,000

11. Birmingham City – £13,228,000

12. Bristol City – £12,894,000

13. Hull City – £12,333,200

14. Swansea City – £12,276,000

15. Queens Park Rangers – £12,020,000

16. Ipswich Town – £11,378,000

17. Preston North End – £10,942,200

18. Coventry City – £10,008,000

19. Millwall – £9,856,000

20. Huddersfield Town – £9,258,000

21. Sunderland – £9,150,000

22. Blackburn Rovers – £7,678,000

23. Rotherham United – £6,674,000

24. Plymouth Argyle – £6,060,000


Average appears be around 12-14m, basically just over double ours.

These amounts aren't correct, they are at best intelligent guesses and at worst a work of fiction.
Swansea just published accounts for last season and had wages of £21.2M. Ipswich had wages of £19.8M last season in L1.
Argyle's total wage bill (including non player wages ) last season were £8.32M, will definitely be more this season.

 

[vibratingspider]

Do you have a source?

Edit… I see it’s Capology, i don't think that‘s correct as there’s no way Ben Waine is only on a grand a week and Michael Cooper on 3.5k.

2023-2024 Plymouth Salaries and Contracts

Capology | Football Salaries & Finances

www.capology.com

Lino Sousa at £10k a week. Let's hope we're not paying all of that! Forshaw at £15k/wk also seems a bit of a gamble.

 

[Joe Totale]

These amounts aren't correct, they are at best intelligent guesses and at worst a work of fiction.
Swansea just published accounts for last season and had wages of £21.2M. Ipswich had wages of £19.8M last season in L1.
Argyle's total wage bill (including non player wages ) last season were £8.32M, will definitely be more this season.

A lot of fans seem to put a lot of faith in websites like this and Transfermarkt despite them literally not having any inside info. They both just use the same media sources that are available to us then have a guess.

 

[Green Flash]

Personally I dont think these figures have any credibility. We will not know each club's wage bill until accounts are published and even then they will be skewed by the number of non playing staff

 

[philevs]

I appreciate the sentiment of the OP, but can I suggest that the figures from Capology are entirely unreliable. Personally I don’t take them to be true or correct.
Its own website says:
“Plymouth (Championship) Total Gross Salaries for the 2023-2024 Season is £7,306,000, or £140,500 per week. The Highest Paid Player at Plymouth is Ashley Phillips (Centre-Back) with a Gross Annual Salary of £780,000, or £15,000 per week. Ashley Phillips, who is 18 years old, has 1 year and £780,000 gross remaining with Plymouth.

All salary figures are estimates as actual salaries may vary. Unverified players are calculated using algorithms, or sourced from reporting that has not been confirmed yet. Coverage may be limited or incomplete.”​

 

[argobenz]

Whilst in the Championship we had a great chance to attract investment to take the club forward, if we go down that will probably be lost. Whether we stay up or get relegated this “Happy Shopper FC” attitude wont cut it in the Championship for long.



We either move forward or slip backwards.



Time will tell.

 

[jmh630]

The top 5 in the money league all in the top 5 of the actual league.

Ipswich?

 

[Penmaster]

Very true. Gone are the days (hopefully, unless we plummet down the leagues) that someone walks out of the dockyard into our first team.

Whittaker, Azaz, Mumba, Gibson, Hardie... they were all in someone's academy once. If we want to be able to keep on singing "he's one of our own" then Brickfields is the future.

That's not to say I would not favour short-term investment on players as well, if someone is willing and we are not saddled with huge debts.

I'm totally against short term investment (depending on definition). For example, taking Forshaw on an 18 month deal at 10k (guess) a week is a measured gamble and potentially a short term investment but without long term liability. He was signed because he was within budget and if he had stayed fit, he could have been the difference between L1 and Championship football next season (he still may do). As a pro, he's a good influence on the younger players in the squad.

Spending £1M on Morgs and Mumba was obviously a lot of money for us but they were longer term investments. I'd imagine that Morgan will leave at some point for in excess of £10M and Mumba still has the potential to do similar. I couldn't imagine Mumba leaving for less than we paid for him.

If we were to sign a 30 plus year old player who costs 500k and is on 10k a week over 3 years then, absolutely not. (Unless it was a goalkeeper).

 

[Penmaster]

Whilst in the Championship we had a great chance to attract investment to take the club forward, if we go down that will probably be lost. Whether we stay up or get relegated this “Happy Shopper FC” attitude wont cut it in the Championship for long.



We either move forward or slip backwards.



Time will tell.

Happy Shopper FC?

We broke our transfer record twice this season. We are investing £10M plus in infrastructure. We expensively sacked a manager after 3 months.

How do you define us as Happy Shopper FC?

 

[Argylegames]

Happy Shopper FC?

Plymouth Aldi FC then?

 

[Quintrell Green]

Balancing the youthful flow of skilled opportunity from down the Milehouse Road towards Home Park in expedient times, offsetting the risks of trust, will prove a difficult conundrum for the Argyle coaching team in the future, in trying to bridge the budgetary gap between the top and bottom of The Championship. I just hope that Argyle supporters will demonstrate the required patience that will be required for the superb Brickfields investment to become successful.