8 ordinary Premier League players we can’t believe earn more than Liverpool’s Luis Diaz

Liverpool are reportedly set to offer star forward Luis Diaz a new and improved contract following his fine start to the 2024-25 campaign, and you imagine that his agent will be demanding a considerable payrise given the Colombian’s reported wages at Anfield.

It’s believed that Diaz is earning somewhere in the region of £55,000 a week on the deal that he signed when he arrived from Porto. Obviously that’s a massive amount of money, but in a wider context it wouldn’t put him in the Premier League’s top 200 earners.

If true, it would take Diaz about two months to take home what top earner Kevin De Bruyne does in a week, while it’s believed that his Reds team-mate Mohamed Salah earns almost seven times more in wages. We’ve identified eight players we can’t believe earn more in wages than the regular Liverpool starter.

Vitaliy Mykolenko

We don’t mean any disrespect to Mykolenko.

The Ukrainian has had his critics amid Everton’s sorry start to the 2024-25 campaign but he’s by and large been a solid addition at Goodison Park, particularly defensively.

Yet we find it pretty confusing that a not-especially-glamorous full-back at cash-strapped crisis club Everton, who arrived on Merseyside the same month Diaz did, takes home marginally more than a superstar forward, signed for a big-money fee, that regularly starts for a side challenging at the top end of the table.

It’s believed that Mykolenko’s wages are in the region of £58,000 a week.

Jakub Kiwior

The Polish defender was signed by Arsenal from Serie A strugglers Spezia in January 2013.

He’s a functional enough squad player for Mikel Arteta’s Gunners, but he’s made a grand total of 16 Premier League starts during his time in English football.

Get us Swiss Ramble on the phone. We need someone to talk us through the mechanisms of how exactly he’s thought to be banking £58,000 a week.

Adam Armstrong

A worthy successor to the mantle of too-good-for-the-Championship-not-good-enough-for-the-Premier-League once held by the likes of Cameron Jerome and David Nugent, Armstrong fired Southampton back into the top flight last season with an excellent tally of 24 goals, including the winner against Leeds United in the play-off final.

But his Premier League record for Saints prior to making himself useful in the second tier stood at a paltry four goals in 53 appearances, and the early signs for 2024-25 don’t look all that promising.

That’s what £60,000 a week gets you. A cool £5,000 more than Diaz, somehow.

Tyler Adams

The USA captain has paid a grand total of 118 Premier League minutes since moving from relegated Leeds to Bournemouth last summer.

A transfer fee of £20million alongside his reported £60,000-a-week salary is eye-watering if you think about it on a per-minute basis.

Still, there’s a decent player there and if he can put his injury woes behind him he might yet prove good value for Andoni Iraola’s Cherries.

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Jonny Evans

Manchester United were recruiting considerable experience when they brought the Northern Irish veteran back to Old Trafford last year.

The 36-year-old has spent near enough his entire career in the Premier League and during his prime years he’ll have been incredibly well-remunerated.

But a whole £10,000 more a week than Diaz for a squad filler that helps fill the homegrown quota? If anything sums up the gap between how effectively and efficiently Manchester United and Liverpool have spent their money in recent years, this is it.

Kostas Tsimikas

…Which is not to say that Liverpool get off entirely scot-free here. This isn’t even a criticism of Liverpool’s spending practices, or of Tsimikas himself. He’s as perfectly decent a back-up left-back as you’ll find in the Premier League.

Yet we’re left scratching our heads at how a back-up left-back is on higher wages (£75,000, apparently) than one of Arne Slot’s go-to attackers.

Diaz’s agent isn’t going need to be a master negotiator to make the case that his client ought to be earning considerably more than Tsimikas.

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Benoit Badiashile

You’ll get some strange characters in dark corners of Twitter arguing that the way Todd Boehly has run Chelsea over the past couple of years makes any degree of sense.

That they’ve done well to get their wage bill down and aren’t paying the exorbitant figures some of their Premier League rivals are.

Then you read how Badiashile is thought to be on £90,000 a week. And the French defender has got that pay packet locked down until 2030(!). Then you start to wonder what planet any of these people are living on.

Matt Targett

Newcastle kept things fairly sensible during the early days of their Saudi takeover. There were no daft glamour signings.

The likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier made an instant impact when they were signed midway through the 2021-22 campaign, steering them to safety, while even Matt Targett was an unsexy but Premier League-proven defender that had his uses.

After an initially successful loan from Aston Villa, Newcastle bought Targett on a permanent deal in the summer of 2022. He signed a four-year deal and is believed to be on wages of £100,000 a week.

That’s almost twice as much in wages as Diaz on a bloke that’s made a grand total of seven Premier League starts since signing permanently. We need a lie down.