Man Utd showing poor value in performance and wage stakes
Manchester United were below par in the Premier League last season in terms of performance compared with player wages, figures show.
United could only finish seventh in the 2013/14 campaign yet were the highest payers with a wage bill of £215.8million, with neighbours and rivals City the second highest with £205m.
Chelsea, currently 10 points clear at the top of the table, were third in the top flight last season were only the third-highest payers with a wage bill of £192.7m.
Another top performing side was Southampton who are only ranked 16th in the top flight in terms of their wage bill (£55.2m) and have continued to impress on the pitch this year - they are currently seventh in the Premier League.
Liverpool over-achieved last season - finishing second despite having the fifth-highest wage bill, but have dropped down to fifth in the table this season - a position more representative of their spending on wages.
The biggest under-achievers were QPR whose salary bill was almost twice what the club earned in total last season.
A £75.3m wage bill - even from a season when they were in the Championship - made them the eighth-highest payers yet they are struggling in 19th place and facing relegation.
The wages costs and profits or losses of all top-flight clubs for 2013/14 have been revealed via annual accounts posted at Companies House and overall there is a close correlation between total salary bill and league position, with the current top four in the Premier League also the four biggest payers.
The combined accounts of the 20 clubs shows overall turnover rose to £3.07billion from £2.3bn in 2012/13 with wages increasing too but at a slower rate and totalling £1.84bn compared with £1.59bn.
The latest figure shows salaries account for 59.9 per cent of turnover compared with 71.7 per cent for the same 20 clubs a year before.
The increase in income is mainly down to the Premier League's lucrative TV deal that came into effect for the first time last season. The cash injection has led to six clubs who were in the red in 2012/13 now reporting a profit.
Apart from those clubs who were promoted from the Championship last season, only Manchester City, Aston Villa and Sunderland ended the 2013/14 season having made a financial loss.
Premier League director of communications Dan Johnson said the clubs' decision in 2013 to introduce spending controls had also contributed to a positive financial outlook.
Johnson said: "There are two reasons for this. The first is increasing revenues and the second is the financial criteria the clubs have voted in two seasons ago which put financial sustainability at the heart of how they want to go forward."
The measures introduced by the clubs capped the amount they could use TV money to pay for player costs. It also put a long-term limit on a club's overall losses.