6 Premier League players that somehow earn more than Luton’s entire squad
No fewer than 90 Premier League footballers earn more by themselves than Luton Town’s entire squad put together.
With a total annual wage bill of just £5.8million, Rob Edwards’ Hatters are collectively paid about as much as Jorginho, Kieran Tierney and Dejan Kulusevski. To put that in perspective, the Premier League’s highest-earner, Kevin De Bruyne, picks up annual wages of £20.8million from Manchester City.
Using data from Capology, we’ve picked out six players that somehow command higher wages than Luton’s whole squad.
Andre Gomes
Remember him? Yes, Andre Gomes is still on Everton’s books.
The 30-year-old Portuguese midfielder has one year left to run on the lucrative five-year contract he signed when he joined from Barcelona back in 2019. According to industry reports, he earns £112,308 a week, amounting to £5,840,000 a year – about £4,000 more than Luton’s squad.
With bookkeeping like that, it’s no wonder Everton have found themselves battling relegation the last couple of years.
It remains to be seen whether Gomes will feature in Sean Dyche’s plans for the 2023-24 campaign. He spent last season out on loan at Lille and has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia – where he might be the first player to arrive and take a pay cut.
Malang Sarr
If ‘players currently on Chelsea’s books’ was a round on Pointless, Sarr would surely be in with a chance.
The French defender joined the Blues back in 2020 but has made just eight Premier League appearances amid loans away to Porto and Monaco. It’s not expected that he’ll feature in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans this season – with reports suggesting that a 2023-24 loan to Strasbourg is imminent.
Chelsea are paying him £120,000 a week – which works out at £6.2million a year. Oof.
READ: Ranking Chelsea’s 7 summer 2020 signings from shocking to pretty decent
Alphonse Areola
The France international is no doubt a quality goalkeeper on his day. But he’s 30 years of age now and there’s a creeping sense that he’s destined to spend his career as a Waitrose Richard Wright.
It was fair enough that he struggled to make it off the bench in PSG and Real Madrid’s quality squads, but Areola has struggled to displace a veteran Lukasz Fabianski at West Ham – with just six Premier League appearances in the last two seasons.
In fairness, David Moyes entrusted Areola throughout the Hammers’ UEFA Conference League-winning campaign, so he’s certainly proved useful. But £6.2million a year is a hefty price for a cup ‘keeper.
Nicolas Pepe
Arsenal spend a lot of money these days but they’re becoming a model club when it comes to smart recruitment. Things have changed a lot since 2019, when they signed Pepe for a whopping £72million.
In fairness, it doesn’t look like Pepe will remain a Premier League player for much longer. He’s into the final year of his current deal but will play no part in Mikel Arteta’s plans for 2023-24 and media reports suggest that the Gunners are negotiating a settlement to terminate the forward’s contract.
If Arsenal are to pay off the final year of Pepe’s salary in full, it’ll set them back £7.2million. Ouch.
Kalvin Phillips
An integral cog for Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United side, as well as England’s Player of the Year after they reached the Euro 2020 final, Phillips failed to kick on during his debut season at the Etihad.
He’s technically a treble-winner, but played almost no part. When he was fit and available, he just couldn’t convince Pep Guardiola to utilise him as a fringe squad player.
Phillips’ only Premier League starts came in dead rubbers after Man City wrapped up the title. He clocked up just 593 minutes in all competitions.
“I don’t remember exactly the number of games I played, but I had a talk with the club and the coach because it’s not healthy,” first-choice defensive midfielder Rodri recently said, suggesting it was a problem that his deputy wasn’t rotated in more often.
Man City signed the 27-year-old for £42million and pay him £7.8million a year in wages. Unless there’s a dramatic turnaround in year two, that just looks like money down the drain.
🚨 Amazon Prime are releasing a documentary on Kalvin Phillips’ football journey. 19th July. 📺 pic.twitter.com/1in0tYr1Xo
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 5, 2023
Callum Hudson-Odoi
It feels like a long time ago that Chelsea turned down £70million from Bayern Munich for Hudson-Odoi.
The winger’s career has seriously stagnated after he failed to nail down a regular starting spot in Chelsea’s XI, but the Cobham academy graduate was once so highly valued that he was given a five-year contract worth £9.3million-a-year.
That was back in 2019, so he’s finally into the final 12 months of that lucrative contract. But Chelsea haven’t given him a squad number for the upcoming campaign and it’s been widely reported that he’s set to be loaned out to Fulham. You can’t imagine the Cottagers will be paying anywhere near his full salary.
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