10 Most Overpaid Players in the Premier League
The Premier League is home to some of the most sought-after footballers in the world, and a great deal of that allure comes thanks to its ability to offer some of the biggest wage packets in the sport.
England's giants are among Europe's better-equipped outfits when it comes to meeting salary demands, but even those outside the Premier League hierarchy can be guilty of splashing their funds unwisely.
Here, we take a look at those Premier League players who aren't quite deserving of the wages they rake in, with some below-par performers earning astronomical numbers while others shouldn't even earn the average.
Like most things in football, salaries are all relative. Therefore, we're not just observing the highest net earners, but also those lower down the division who shouldn't be so well compensated considering their return.
Honourable Mention: Radamel Falcao
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Weekly Salary: £265,000
If Radamel Falcao continues his current downward spiral and is still struggling for goals this time next year, he may well be deserving of a place on our list, but an honourable mention is as far as the Colombian goes for now.
At first glance, a season-long loan for the Monaco forward seemed like a masterstroke on Manchester United's part, bringing minimal risk as Falcao made his recovery from the knee ligament injury suffered last winter.
However, his £265,000-a-week wages now looks a lot more like the eye-watering expenditure it truly is, which The Telegraph's Mark Ogden noted would cost United £24 million over the course of his loan spell.
Falcao's record of four Premier League goals under Louis van Gaal couldn't be further from the previously prolific form shown with Atletico Madrid and Porto, but the South American maintains an elite reputation nonetheless.
One torrid season isn't quite enough to eradicate a career's worth of fine work, but Falcao has some recovering to do before he once again justifies his place as one of the world's best-paid players.
10. Luke Shaw
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Weekly Salary: £120,000
Much to the bemusement of some of the older generation, we now live in a world where those barely old enough to legally consume alcohol can earn hundreds of thousands of pounds per week, Luke Shaw included.
Manchester United won the race for Shaw's signature last summer, acquiring the young prospect whom many see as the guardian of England's left-back position for years to come.
Chelsea were also in the running for Shaw last summer, but Blues boss Jose Mourinho noted at the time his wage demands would have unsettled the Stamford Bridge dressing room, per the Daily Mail's Matt Lawton:
"If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, for Luke Shaw, we are dead. We kill our stability with Financial Fair Play. We kill the stability in our dressing room.
Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid — a good player, a fantastic player — the next day, me and (Chelsea director) Mrs Granovskaia and (technical director) Michael Emenalo get players knocking on our door and saying how is it possible that I play for this club 200 games and won this and that?
How come a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get? It would kill immediately our balance and we don’t allow that.
Filipe Luis played for Brazil, won titles in Spain, won a European competition, played (in a) Champions League semi-final, this guy is much cheaper than an English young lad.
I don’t criticise the other clubs for paying it. But for my club, we can say it would be very negative.
"
But United's capture came at a price—on top of the £30 million handed to Southampton for their star, the Red Devils also shell out the weighty sum of £120,000 a week for Shaw's loyalties, a wage he's yet to truly earn.
Even if the 19-year-old had been fully fit for his first season at Old Trafford, Shaw had made just 60 Premier League appearances for the Saints, evidence toward the notion there is a premium for young, English talent.
9. Andreas Christensen
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Weekly Salary: £20,000
From one 19-year-old to another, Chelsea up-and-comer Andreas Christensen earns but a mere sixth of what the aforementioned Shaw draws at Old Trafford, but his salary seems preposterous nevertheless.
In Shaw's case, the defender at least has some experience in his senior side and in the top flight, having made his first-team debut for Southampton more than three years ago.
Christensen, on the other hand, has made only two first-team appearances for Chelsea and is yet to make his Premier League bow, yet boasts a staggering weekly wage of £20,000.
In fairness, the former Brondby prodigy is being hailed as an extremely promising prospect, but to have so little experience and still command an annual salary of seven figures boggles the mind.
Christensen's state of financial security in some ways shows just how much money Chelsea have to invest in their youth army, illustrating why England's giants are able to lure in some of the world's most highly tipped youngsters.
8. Joey Barton
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Weekly Salary: £70,000
Spending money in inappropriate sums is assuredly part of Tony Fernandes' problem as Queens Park Rangers owner, with transfer fees and wage payouts of recent years spiralling out of control in certain cases.
Club captain Joey Barton is deservedly held in high regard at Loftus Road, having paid his dues over the last four years to become an important member of the Hoops' squad—just not £70,000-a-week important.
QPR's arithmetic is sound on paper: Offer large wages in order to land a better grade of player and the results should come, but Barton isn't necessarily the kind of character who guarantees points per season.
In fact, no team yo-yoing in and out of England's top flight in recent years should really be shelling out such hefty salaries, perhaps especially on one as unpredictable and volatile as Barton.
It isn't two years since Neil Ashton of the Daily Mail reported the central midfielder was demanding a £3 million payoff to leave the Rs. Some will see it as fortunate Barton's lucrative contract expires this summer.
7. Glen Johnson
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Weekly Salary: £120,000
There sits an enclave of supporters at Anfield who will be overjoyed to see the back of Glen Johnson this summer—or more specifically, glad to see the back of his £120,000-a-week dent on the club's wage bill.
At the time of his 2009 arrival from Portsmouth, the former Chelsea man was considered one of the Premier League's in-form full-backs, but any defender needs to be world-class to justify a salary so astronomical.
Johnson's six years on Merseyside have been a topsy-turvy journey of highs and lows, taking him from right-back to left-back and back again, with his reputation enduring some difficult periods indeed.
Part of the concern with the 30-year-old has been a negligence in the defensive department at times, one duty an elite full-back should always be expected to perform with due care.
There was a time when Johnson earned wages on a par with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez, two Liverpool figures who were far more worthy of their substantial earnings than Johnson.
6. Bacary Sagna
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Weekly Salary: £150,000
Upon leaving Arsenal for Manchester City on a free transfer last summer, Bacary Sagna claimed his move was motivated by title prospects and not money, but it's ironic the latter is currently all he has to show for his troubles.
Despite seeing the Citizens' Premier League title defence reduced to rubble and having played a cameo role at the Etihad Stadium, the right-back told the Manchester Evening News (h/t Daily Mail's Jack Bezants) he doesn't regret his decision:
"I see a lot of comments from fans saying I should have stayed at Arsenal but if I had to do it again, if I had to come back and sign for City, I would have done it again. I'm happy because I came to the champions.
When I signed I just wanted to come, give the maximum, and give my best for the club then after, it’s life, no?
"
With a year at Manchester City netting the 32-year-old close to £8 million, one can certainly understand how Sagna can be so upbeat, but having made just nine league appearances this season, his impact at the club has been minimal.
Were he given more of a chance in front of Pablo Zabaleta, one might even suggest Sagna is worth the expense, with City able to finance such a deal thanks to the player commanding no transfer fee.
However, shelling out such large figures for a player on the wrong side of 30 and with next to no involvement reminds us of the "old" Manchester City, an above-average cost for a player who isn't yet deserving—and may never be.
5. Darren Bent
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Weekly Salary: £65,000
Life at Villa Park started with plenty of positives for Darren Bent. The striker scored nine goals during his first six months in Birmingham to go some way in justifying the £24 million sum that brought him there.
But after making just 45 appearances for the Villans in the past three campaigns, Bent has spent a great deal of time outside the club's borders, making his £65,000-a-week wages that much harder to accept.
As is the case with Johnson and Barton, Bent's current contract will also reach its end this summer, but The Telegraph's John Percy quotes the forward as saying he may yet pen an extension now that Paul Lambert is no longer at the Villa helm:
"There have been conversations with Villa regarding the future and I need to have a think about things in the summer.
I’m not ruling out going back, just like I wouldn’t rule out staying at Derby because they have given me a lifeline to play football and score goals again. But yes, there’s been discussions [with Villa] and we will have to look at it.
"
Should Lambert's replacement, Tim Sherwood, see value in the 31-year-old, one can bet the Premier League outfit will be attempting to reduce his wage expense, having scored his last Premier League goal for Villa all the way back in May 2013.
Compared to other financial heavy hitters on this list, Bent may not be considered even a blip on the radar, but the fact Villa have paid out so much since 2011 despite not having the player under their own roof makes it a sore blow.
4. Andy Carroll
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Weekly Salary: £90,000
It is, of course, not something West Ham United could have quite predicted, but a slew of chronic knee injuries have played their part in making Andy Carroll one of the biggest flops in Premier League history.
Unfortunately for the east London outfit, however, they did agree to pay the striker £90,000 a week upon signing him permanently from Liverpool in 2013 following a fairly successful season-long loan at Upton Park.
According to James Olley of the London Evening Standard, Carroll has been injured for 17 of the 32 total months spent with West Ham, scoring just 14 goals in 56 appearances.
The former Liverpool and Newcastle attacker has cost the Hammers just over £11.5 million in wages thus far on top of the £16.5 million fee that took him to England's capital on permanent terms almost two years ago.
The sad truth is that after starting his top-flight career so brightly with the Magpies, Carroll may never reach his full potential, but with West Ham forking out a little more than £2.7 million per goal until now, his salary seems an extortionate one.
What's more, Carroll still has four years to run on his West Ham contract, pointing out just how critical it is the club see some sort of improved return from their injury-plagued asset.
3. Mario Balotelli
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Weekly Salary: £110,000
Mario Balotelli earned some deserved praise for accepting a £60,000 wage decrease in order to make the move from Milan to Liverpool last year and earn just £110,000 a week instead, per Nik Postinger (via Metro).
Eight months on from his switch, the Reds will wish they succeeded in slashing the striker's salary even further, though, with his return of four goals in 26 Liverpool outings far below what they were hoping for.
Balotelli was always a risky prospect. His controversial temperament is well-known from his tenure at Manchester City, while his form at Milan hardly deserved earning one of England's best-paid contracts.
In fairness, Liverpool did conduct a bit of savvy business in the deal by inserting a "good behaviour clause," per Metro's report, which could come to save them some funds if the forward does act out.
Even with that, though, Balotelli looks more and more like a last-resort signing as his Liverpool career goes on, and the writing was always on the wall that things could have gone in the wrong direction.
2. Emmanuel Adebayor
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Weekly Salary: £170,000
"Stealing a living" is a term often used to describe footballers who contribute very little despite raking in massive sums of money; that phrase is perhaps befitting of no player more so than Emmanuel Adebayor.
Earlier in April, the Daily Mail (h/t Metro's Vaishali Bhardwaj) revealed that not only has the Togolese attacker earned £100,000 a week from Tottenham Hotspur since signing in 2012, but former club Manchester City continue to pay him another £70,000 a week.
It would be considered a gargantuan salary for even the cream of the football crop, and after scoring just two goals in 12 Premier League appearances this season, Adebayor is most certainly not that.
Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail reports Spurs are once again looking to offload the player this summer, but one gets the sense Adebayor would be more than happy to linger on in his current climate.
1. Frank Lampard
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Weekly Salary: £190,000
Major League Soccer is well-known as something of a pension plan for the stars of European soccer, but Frank Lampard has fortunately nestled himself within City Football Group to land the largest pay day of his career.
At 36 years of age, the Englishman has somehow made his way back to the Premier League on loan with Manchester City and even earns more now than he ever did during a glistening 13 years at Chelsea.
Lampard will move to New York City FC this summer as expected, but managing to agree a £190,000-a-week, season-long loan at City means the midfielder is earning £40,000 more than his most lucrative Chelsea contract.
For that, the veteran's public relations team deserve some sort of negotiations award. Granted, Lampard has made 27 Premier League appearances this season, but having played just 678 minutes, per Transfermarkt, he averages just 25 minutes per game.
No longer the same talismanic figure capable of winning game after game almost single-handedly, Lampard sits as another case of how Manchester City don't invest all their funds smartly, to say the least.
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