How the big money is spent

Some highlights of Premier League club finances in 2023/24 provided by the Swiss Ramble.

In 2023/24 no fewer than four clubs made more than £100m from player sales, namely Chelsea £152m, Manchester City £139m, Brighton £110m and Nottingham Forest £101m, while West Ham weren’t too far behind with £96m.

Four clubs generated more than £100m from match day income, namely Manchester United £137m, Arsenal £132m, Tottenham £106m and Liverpool £102m, while three clubs made less than £10m (Burnley £9m, Bournemouth £7m and Luton Town £6m).

The Premier League’s other expenses, effectively a club’s running costs, have also massively grown in the past decade, rising from £670m to £1.5 bln. Costs dipped during the pandemic, but have shot up since then, first due to higher costs for staging matches with fans, then because of the impact of higher inflation, especially on services and utilities.

Fans often overlook this cost category, but each of the Big Six now pay well over £100m, led by Manchester City £190m, Liverpool £167m and Tottenham £159m, which emphasises just how much these costs have grown.

Over half of the debt is at just three clubs, namely Everton £1.0 bln, Tottenham £851m and Manchester United £547m.   These three clubs accounted for over 70% of the division’s third party loans on their own.

In the last two seasons, Chelsea have been in a league of their own on gross transfer spending with an incredible outlay of £1.3 bln, but other clubs also spent a lot of money, such as Arsenal £507m, Manchester United £468m, Manchester City £447m and Tottenham £424m.

Premier League clubs have spent £4.2 bln on capital expenditure in the last decade, including £2.2 bln in the last five years, mainly on stadium and training ground developments.

Tottenham were responsible for a large slice of this infrastructure investment with a £1.5 bln outlay since 2014/15, followed by Everton £675m, Manchester City £419m (including City Football Group expenditure), Liverpool £358m and Fulham £280m.

The largest amounts of owner funding  provided were Chelsea £370m, Manchester United £159m, Aston Villa £148m, Liverpool £127m and Fulham £123m.