Data gathered by FootItalia shows just how much Premier League clubs are spending on wages for players who barely featured across last season.
By analysing wage and game time figures for top flight first team players with less than 500 Premier League minutes in 2024-25, FootItalia can reveal exactly how costly it is for clubs to keep high-wage talent on the bench.
The data has been used to compile a ‘Top 11’ of money-wasting benchwarmers that have cost their clubs millions sitting on the bench.
Key Data:
- Chelsea the top money wasters, spending over £15 million on bench warmer wages.
- Antony cost Manchester United more than £7M in wages while sitting on the bench.
- Forwards dominate the top 11, with seven mis-firing attackers included.
High-Earners, Low Minutes: Meet the Premier League’s Top Eleven Benchwarmers. Below, we have put together a table, showing the top 11 highest learning benchwarmers over the last Premier League season.
Top 11 Highest Benchwarmer Earners of The 24/25 Season
This data demonstrates the crazy amount of money being spent by Premier League clubs on bench-warming players.
It highlights the levels of mismanagement and inflated wage structures prevalent at top clubs. With profit and sustainability (PSR) regulations getting ever more stringent, clubs can ill-afford to waste such massive sums on stars who don’t play.
Ranked: PL clubs with highest waste of wages on the bench 24/25 season
Benchwarmers by club
Chelsea – Bettenelli, Guiu, Felix, Mudryk, Dewsbury-Hall
Manchester United – Malacia, Antony, Evans, Bayindir, Heaton
Manchester City – Carson, Reis, Rodri, McAtee, Bobb
Arsenal – Neto, Tierney, Sterling
Aston Villa – Buendia, Olsen, Malen, Philogene, Bogarde
Liverpool – Quansah, Elliot, Chiesa, Endo, Jaros
Crystal Palace – Turner, Ward, Schlupp, Clyne, Doucoure
Newcastle United – Targett, Osula, Almiron, Miley, Krath
West Ham United – Foderingham, Ings, Irvine, Ferguson, Guilherme
Tottenham Hotspur – Austin, Reguilon, Richarlison, Moore
One of the most glaring observations from the table is the frequency with which Chelsea players appear.
Three Blues make the top 11 – more than any other club. Between Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Mykhailo Mudryk, Chelsea have spent just shy of £12 million on wages for the trio to sit in the dugout.
With so many players on big money barely featuring, it demonstrates the pitfalls of Chelsea’s scatter-gun transfer policy under Todd Boehly.
Antony Tops Bench Warmer Table
Chelsea might have the most players in the top 11, but no individual player has cost more from the bench than Antony.
The Manchester United winger has earned an eye-watering £7,368,421 from the bench in 2024-25. His inflated wages have been a huge problem, leading United to send him on loan for the second half of the season.
With his £200,000 per week contract running until 2027, the club will seriously struggle to offload him.
Failed Forwards Cost Clubs Mega Money
Another key takeaway from the data is the proportion of forwards in the top 11 bench-warmers.
Premier League attackers who aren’t scoring goals will quickly find themselves dropped. But these players are still costing their clubs a huge amount of money.
Each of the top five players in our list are attackers, showing how much money clubs can waste if they sign a forward who doesn’t deliver. However, no individual player cost more per minute played than Newcastle’s Matt Targett. The fullback earned a whopping £210,526 for every Premier League minute he played this season.
Commentary
Daniel Prescott, head of news at FootItalia, said: “What we can see from these figures is that Premier League clubs are hemorrhaging money on big-wage players who rarely feature.
“That the top three players on the list can earn a combined almost £20 million whilst not technically working highlights how poor some clubs’ decision-making has been when negotiating contracts.”
Methodology
To reveal the data for the most expensive benchwarmers in the Premier League 2024/25 season, FootItalia sourced playtime stats from Transfermarkt.co.uk.
Wage data was found via Spotrac.com, with the two compared to calculate a cost/minute played and possible minutes for each player.
To fit the criteria of a benchwarmer, we included only first team players that had played less than a total of 500 minutes for their clubs in the Premier League this season.
This also made it possible to calculate the cost for each player’s time spent sitting on the bench.
