Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down just in the figures involved with transfer fees, but the actual wage bill of a club is also important when determining what their expectations should be on the pitch.
There’s been a narrative building for a while that Man United just throw money around in an attempt to build a winning team without success, while Liverpool have quietly gone about their business by building a great squad with several solid additions.
That is true in some cases as they’ve found some bargains along the way, but a lot of money was spent on players like Virgil van Dijk and Allison so there’s been plenty of money spent at Anfield.
There will also be many who think Man United’s wage bill will be higher than their rivals, but it actually looks like Liverpool have outspent them last year, and there’s quite a big difference in this too:
Liverpool's accounts show the club has overtaken Man Utd in wages paid – can't remember when that last happened. 'Big Six' wages table for 2019/20 here:
Man City £351m
Liverpool £325m
Man Utd £284m
Chelsea £283m
Arsenal £225m
Spurs £181m— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) April 27, 2021
It’s also interesting to look at some of the other figures in there as it shows that Arsenal are wildly underperforming when you look at how much they spend, and it does help to put the achievements of West Ham and Leicester into context this year.