Manchester United and Chelsea: A review of the team's eye-watering salaries.
The Pitch Inspection has dug into the Manchester United and Chelsea's squad salaries and performances on the pitch last season and compared them to their rivals
In September , Manchester United released their Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2024 Results, which included the title “Restructuring Initiatives To Drive Cost Savings”. These “Cost-Savings Initiatives” included reducing the club’s employee head count by 250, expected to be nearly 25% of total employees. The mass redundancy campaign is expected to contribute towards annual cost savings of approximately £40-45 million.
Manchester United now claim the “new non-football” side of the business to be a “leaner, agile and more sustainable structure.”
Words that are difficult to use when describing the financial outlay on the playing squad during the same fiscal year. The polar opposite some would say, a football antipodal.
Rivalling Manchester United in this arena is Chelsea.
The Pitch Inspection decided to look at the economics of the Manchester United and Chelsea playing squads for the 2023 / 2024 English Premier League season.
We compared available salary details (Capology) vs performance metrics (FBref) as well as overall team value (transfermarkt) to build the following metrics;
Salary (Gross Weekly & Annual Pay), Average Contract Length and Team Value vs Minutes Played and Goal / Assist contributions.
Comparing the following teams:
PFA Team of the Season 2024.
OPTA Analysts Team of the Season 2023/2024.
Chelsea’s highest eleven earners in the same positions.
Manchester United’s highest earners in the same position and then finally,
Combined Manchester United and Chelsea eleven.
Here’s what the data revealed:
Chelsea FC
What does it show us, lets start with Chelsea:
Contract lengths: Chelsea’s average contract length of top eleven earners is approximately double the duration when compared to the PFA team of the season’s players contracts, with over 5 players in the Chelsea eleven having signed contracts 6 years or longer.
Chelsea’s high earners have a gross weekly pay on par with the OPTA Analysts team of the season and is only 10% lower than the PFA team of the season, which consist of ten and eleven players respectively that finished in the top 4 league positions, qualifying for 24/25 Champions League securing substantial revenue and player wage offsets
Salary per minute played: Chelsea’s 2023/24 season was impacted by injury and it shows in the total minutes played by their top earners. With a combined total of 17,292 minutes, nearly half that of the OPTA and PFA teams of the seasons (33,161 & 31,904 minutes played).
With the players wages on par with the best in the league the output results in Chelsea paying approximately £5,804 per playing minute, 68% less economic than 2024 PFA team.
Goals and Assists: The selected Chelsea 11 registering 81 goals and assists vs 156 & 159 respectively for the PFA and OPTA teams. Chelsea shelling out an eye-watering £1,239,012 in salaries per attacking return.
Team Value: Chelsea’s team value has significantly eroded to nearly half that of the PFA & OPTA Analysts team of the season. Paying high wages on long contracts for a large portion of the squad whose market value is dropping.
Team Value was sourced from transfermarkt. , which prepares detailed player values using metrics which includes factors such as: Future prospects, Age, Performance at the club and national team, Level and status of the league, both in sporting and financial terms, Reputation/prestige, Development potential, Marketing value, Number & reputation of interested clubs, Performance potential, Experience level, Injury susceptibility, Different financial conditions of clubs and leagues, General demand and "trends" on the market, General development of transfer fees.
Manchester United FC
Manchester United’s salary paid vs performance makes for even grimmer reading.
Gross weekly pay for Manchester United’s eleven highest earners (in a 433 formation) was a staggering £2,370,000 per week, 8% higher than the PFA team of the season.
Salary per minute played: Manchester United’s top 11 played a total of 21,950 minutes, a third less than the PFA team.
With the minutes low and the players wages significantly high the output results in United paying approximately £5,614 per playing minute, 62% less economic than the 2024 PFA team.
Goals and Assists totalled a very low 55, 101 short of the PFA team. At a jaw dropping cost of £2,240,727 per attacking return. Three times higher than the PFA team. Three times!
Team Value: Like Chelsea, Manchester United’s team value has significantly eroded to less than half that of the PFA & OPTA Analysts teams of the season.
Manchester United’s salaries are totalling higher than the most productive players in the EPL and with only a Europa League spot secured, sustainability of the current wage base is questionable.
If you compare Manchester United’s Top 5 earners in 2023/24 (Casemiro, R.Varane, B.Fernandes, M.Rashford and M.Mount) vs the EPL’s biggest teams (Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool), only Manchester City’s stars earn more.
Manchester United have been paying their stars on par with their city rivals despite only finishing 8th in the League in 2023/24.
Chelsea’s top 5 earners (R.James, B.Chilwell, W.Fofana, C.Nkunku and R.Sterling) played a combined 3,596 minutes during the 2023/24 EPL season at an outlay of £60,840,000. Equivalent to £16,919 per playing minute, 60% higher than Manchester City.
Chelsea’s Captain and Vice Captain for the 2023/24 season were paid significant wages for very little game time. High wages for injury prone players. Neither of which have featured so far in the 2024/25 season.
The Defence:
Sir Alex Ferguson famously said “Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.”
Manchester United and Chelsea spent approximately £59 million on defenders wages during 2023/24 season, just short of Manchester City’s £60 million expenditure on their title winning defence.
Arsenal with the most clean sheets in the league during 2023/24 spent a third less, at £43 million.
Chelsea with only 8 clean sheets, forked out £7,410,000 on defenders wages per clean sheet. Manchester United not fairing much better with only 9 clean sheets at a cost of £6,615,556 per clean sheet.
Manchester United moved on R.Varane in the summer and brought in L.Yoro and M.De Ligt. A Saving of approximately £30,000 per week in wages.
Conclusion:
The 2024/25 season will be pivotal for Manchester United and Chelsea, securing Champions League football and having a good run in the European tournaments they are playing in this season looks like a must.
The revenue streams from the European competitions will be vital to balance out last seasons 2nd (Chelsea) and 4th (Manchester United) highest wage bill.
More metrics available on request.