How Wolves and West Brom’s wage bills compare | OneFootball

Wolves and West Brom will renew their rivalry in the 2026/27 Championship season.

The 2026/27 Championship season is shaping up to be extremely competitive, and it will be the first with the new play-off format that extends to the top eight teams.

So, there promises to be even more to play for in the run-in, and a significant chunk of the division will be aiming to win promotion.

Another reason why it looks so exciting is the number of fierce rivalries in the league, with Wolves and West Brom set to play a Black Country derby league fixture in front of fans for the first time in over a decade.

The objective for Wolves is clear - they expect to return to the Premier League at the first attempt. Meanwhile, Albion will be quietly confident of a good season under former player James Morrison, who did a brilliant job after his appointment earlier this year.

Wolves head into the Championship with a big wage bill

In most leagues, those that spend the most on wages and transfers will be higher up the table, and that is why there will be high expectations at Molineux.

Like all relegated clubs, Wolves come down with a massive wage bill, and the parachute payments they receive will put them at an advantage over others when it comes to complying with the squad cost ration (SCR) rules moving forward.

In terms of their wage bill, Capology claims that Wolves have an annual wage budget of £69,693,000, which works out at over £1.3m a week.

We must stress that these figures are estimates, and it’s also worth noting that it’s widely reported that the Wolves squad will be on wage drops of up to 50% following relegation. Therefore, you’re looking at an annual wage bill of around £35m in the Championship if it was applicable to everyone.

Either way, Wolves will arrive in the second tier as high spenders on wages, and a new contract for Andre, as well as links to Kieran Trippier and Raul Jimenez, suggests that they will be among the big hitters next season.

West Brom are operating on a more modest budget than their rivals

As you would expect, with West Brom gearing up for their sixth successive season in the Championship, they aren’t in a position to spend a similar amount on wages.

Capology states that the Baggies’ annual wage bill is £19.5m, a figure that works out at £375,000 a week, which is considerably lower than Wolves', even accounting for the wage drop.

Again, these figures are estimates, but they highlight the difference between the two clubs right now, which is largely down to the finances that Wolves have received as a top flight side over the past eight years.

But, the brilliance of the Championship is its unpredictability, with Coventry winning the league with no parachute payments. As well as that, Hull not only didn’t have parachute payments, but they were under a transfer embargo, yet they still won promotion via the play-offs.

West Brom will try and replicate those clubs, although it remains to be seen what sort of business they can get done this summer, with Albion having been hit with a points deduction last season for breaching financial rules.