How much more money Finn Azaz earns at Southampton compared to Middlesbrough | OneFootball

Former Middlesbrough playmaker Finn Azaz made the move from Teesside to the South Coast this summer, and he's reaping the financial rewards for it.

The former Middlesbrough playmaker Finn Azaz made a move south to join Southampton at the end of the summer transfer window, and he's reaping a big financial reward for having made that switch.

Southampton haven't had a terribly successful start to their 2025-26 Championship season, with a win, a defeat and three draws leaving them in 15th place in the table.

But while the Saints have yet to fully get themselves going as they seek a quick return to the Premier League, one of their players has already sealed himself a handsome reward by making the move to St Mary's.

Finn Azaz had been the subject of considerable transfer speculation throughout the entire summer, and he finally made the switch from Middlesbrough to Southampton shortly before the end of the summer transfer window.

A £12 million fee that could rise to £14 million will have soothed some of the disruption at Middlesbrough caused by his departure, though estimates of what he could be earning at St Mary's offer firm evidence of why he made the switch in the first place.

Finn Azaz made a handsome profit from his move to Southampton

There is one significant respect in which Finn Azaz has already benefited from moving from Middlesbrough to Southampton. Capology estimates that Southampton are paying him £50,000-a-week under his new contract, an almost six-fold increase on the £8,500-a-week that he was estimated to be on at Middlesbrough.

This isn't the first healthy bump up in wages that Aziz has received throughout his career. Middlesbrough themselves almost trebled his salary from that which he earned at his previous club Plymouth, while the player is now earning more than 25 times his first salary in the professional game, the £1,923-a-week that he was reported to be on at Newport County in 2021-22, just four seasons ago.

Finn Azaz's pay increase is a demonstration of the Championship's financial inequality in action

When Finn Azaz made the move from Middlesbrough to Southampton, he stated that he was joining a ‘Premier League club’, and while this might not have been correct in the most obvious sense of that phrase, it certainly was in terms of his earnings. Capology estimates that the average wage of a Southampton player is £1.23 million a year, compared to an average of £678,000 at Middlesbrough.

This is, of course, the reality of Premier League parachute payments at work. Clubs which have had a taste of top-flight football have a significant financial advantage for three years following relegation which clubs like Middlesbrough can't really match. The overwhelming majority of the best-paid players in the division - all earning multiple times the average for the Championship - are signed with clubs who have that extra degree of financial insulation.

All of this makes the current Championship table look a little upside-down, because with five games of the League season played, it's Middlesbrough who sit at the top, with Stoke City and Bristol City - neither of whom receive parachute payments either - in second place, while Leicester City in fourth are the only one of last year's three relegated clubs in the top half of the table, with Ipswich 14th and Southampton 15th.

Of course, looks can be deceiving when it comes to early-season league tables, and there's every possibility that things will look very different in a month or two's time, but for now, top of the table with four wins and a draw from their opening five games, Middlesbrough certainly have plenty more to be happy about than Southampton over their start to the season so far, regardless of how much they're paying their players.