How Sheffield United's wage bill compares to the rest of the Championship | OneFootball

This is how much the Blades pays its players, according to estimates.

Sheffield United are one of the richer teams in the Championship.

Despite a summer window that was initially set up to be one only consisting of free-agent acquisitions and loans, the Blades did end up spending a fair bit of money.

The money earned from being in the Premier League will do any club that is coming back down to the Championship well and that's where Chris Wilder's team find themselves two seasons on from winning automatic promotion.

With that extra cash, they are able to pay their players more money than most teams can. How much more? We've looked at Capology's estimations to examine how their wage bill compares to the rest of the second tier...

Sheffield United's 2024/25 wage bill

Having come down from the Premier League, it'll be no surprise to many that the money that the Blades pay their players every week is above league average.

The current mean annual salary for a Championship player is £597,164, according to estimates by Capology. In comparison, the estimated average that United player earns £878,000, which is a 147% increase on the league's average.

The red side of the Steel City will pay an estimated cumulative total of £22,828,000 to its players, as per Capology, whereas the average total payroll for any given Championship club sits at £16,397,117.

Being relegated from the Premier League to the Championship comes with a lot of fiscal negatives, but the upside is that clubs usually end up paying their players less because of it, in order to make up for the money lost from not being in the English top flight any more.

The Blades' estimated annual payroll for last season was £36,348,000, as per Capology. So the owners are predicted to pay just under 160% less in wages to their players than they did last season. The same can be said for the average annual wage per player, which was £1,038,514 (£19,971 per week).

They paid that much to a team that was, statistically, one of the worst teams in Premier League history.

Sheffield United's wage bill compared to the highest wage bill in the Championship

Capology states that the Blades' estimated £22,828,000 payroll for this season is the fourth-highest in the division. They also list Leeds United as the team that will pay more to its players than any other club in the Championship, and there's quite a gap between first and fourth.

Leeds' annual wage bill for this season is estimated to be £36,816,000. That figure is just under £14 million per year more than what United are said to be set to pay, and it's actually higher than the payroll of the Blades when they were in the Premier League last season, according to Capology.

The football finances website also estimates that, of the top 10 highest-paid players in the Championship, five of them are Leeds players; Patrick Bamford, Junior Firpo, Manor Solomon (on loan), Dan James and Pascal Struijk.

Between them, they are estimated to earn £290,000 per week, or £15,080,000 per year - just over 40% of Leeds' annual payroll - according to Capology.

Sheffield United's wage bill compared to Sheffield Wednesday

Considering United have recently been in England's top division and Wednesday only narrowly avoided relegation back to the third tier in their first season back in the Championship, the stark gap in wage bills shouldn't be a shock to anyone.

Wednesday's estimated annual wage bill for this season comes in below the league's average at £15,446,000, which is said to be the 10th highest in the league. That is over £7 million per year less than what the Blades will supposedly hand out.

The Owls aren't without well-paid players. Barry Bannan's £24,038 per week would come very close to making him one of United's 10 best-paid players, if he were to switch allegiances. That said, he is their highest earner, and he is estimated to be on more than £15,000 less than United's top fiscal dog, Harry Souttar, who Capology says is on £40,000 per week.