The Premier League Wage v Position table: Who is over performing & under performing?

Congratulations to Financial Fair Play.co.uk for producing an excellent graph that will be of interest to all fans of Premier League teams and likely beyond.

The Premier League Wage v Position scaled table is particularly interesting in light of the recent agreement on financial rules agreed by the top 20 clubs in England.

But, key to this graph is the understanding that is beginning to seep into the game that wages and not transfer fees are key to success or lack of it.

As the excellent book Soccernomics pointed out over a year ago, it is the best paid teams that usually win their leagues.

Ed Thompson of Financial Fair Play.co.uk explains the table: “The right two columns represent the current league table drawn to scale. The wage costs (shown in the two left columns) are based on either, recently published wage costs for the 2011/12 season, or, where not available, an estimate of the wage bill.”

Of course it is easy to gawp at Manchester City’s failure this season whilst also easy to wonder why Chelsea aren’t challenging Manchester United at the top of the Premier League table.

It also may go some way to explain the high pressured jobs at Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa whilst also pointing to just how well Spurs, Everton, West Brom and Stoke are doing.