After four finishes between 13th and 15th out of five seasons between 2013/14 and 2017/18, the club was transformed ahead of the 2018/19 season.
Of course, that was the summer that Marcelo Bielsa arrived at Elland Road, instantly turning the club’s fortunes around, with Leeds finishing third in 2018/19 and narrowly missing out on promotion.
The next season, Bielsa ensured his side would not be in the play-offs again, winning the league title and a long-awaited return to the Premier League.
The Whites took the top flight by storm, too, finishing 9th with 59 points in their first top flight campaign for 16 seasons.
Unfortunately, though, the dreaded second-season syndrome struck. Bielsa was ousted, and the club narrowly avoided the drop in 2021/22. A feat they could not repeat last season, when they finished 19th and suffered relegation back to the Championship.
A decade on from 2013/14, then, the club are back in the second tier, but out of interest, we thought we’d take a look at how the club’s wage bill back then compares to what it is currently.
With these figures not made official by the club, we will be using Capology data. We must stress, though, that these figures are estimates and not official.
Let’s get into it.
According to Capology’s data on Leeds in 2013/14, a decade ago, the club had an annual payroll of £11,483,800.
That figure meant that on average, each player earned a sum of £318,994 gross per year – that’s £6,135 per week.
The club’s highest earner in the 2013/14 season was Jimmy Kebe, who earned a gross figure of £20,000 per week.
This meant that across the year, Kebe netted a gross sum of £1,040,000.
The club’s second and third-highest earners that season were Stephen Warnock and Paddy Kenny respectively.
Warnock earned slightly less than Kebe, with a gross weekly wage of £18,000, whilst Kenny earned slightly less than that on £15,000 per week.
Compared to a decade ago, Leeds United’s wage bill is much higher this season than it was back then, according to Capology’s estimates.
For example, Capology’s data on Leeds United for 2023/24 estimates the club’s current payroll to be £27,631,000.
That means that at present, the average Leeds United player would take home £891,323 gross per year – a big increase on £318,994 a decade ago. The average is up as well from £6,135 per week to £17,141 per week.
Another big difference between a decade ago and now is the amount the club’s highest earner takes home.
As per Capology, Patrick Bamford and Georginio Rutter are the club’s highest earners in 2023/24, netting a gross figure of £70,000 per week.
That is a whopping £50,000 per week more than the club’s highest earner a decade ago was taking home.
In fact, today, the club’s highest earner a decade ago would only be their 11th highest salary.
Of course, the ever-increasing amount of money being pumped into football, and the fact that the club have just come down from the Premier League, somewhat explain the big differences between the two, with it being an interesting comparison nonetheless.
Since the Premier League was formed in 1992, Middlesbrough were for a long time a top flight club, with a few years here and there in the second tier of English football.
In the last 10 years though, the Teessiders have become far more accustomed to the Championship, with just one solitary season among of the country’s elite.
During that time, Boro will have been one of the big payers when it comes to wages in the second tier, but which player topped the salary list for every season in the last 10 years?
Using Capology’sESTIMATES, let’s take a look at those individuals that year-on-year were thought to be taking home the most money.
The 2013-14 season was Boro’s fifth straight campaign in the Championship following Premier League relegation in 2009, and halfway through that season they landed the services of Chalobah from Chelsea.
The 20-year-old had already had loan stints with Watford and Nottingham Forest before making the move to the Riverside Stadium, and he was estimated to be on £35,000 a week at the time.
Chalobah played 19 times for Boro following his switch, but they could only muster a 12th-placed Championship finish that year – which was still an improvement from 16th the year prior
This campaign was where Boro started their rise back into the promotion race in the Championship under Aitor Karanka, losing out in the play-off final to Norwich City at Wembley after finishing fourth in the table.
That year, their estimated highest earner on £25,500 per week was centre-back Amorebieta, with the Venezuela international signing from Fulham very late on in the season when the emergency loan window was still a thing.
Amorebieta made just the five appearances at the back end of the campaign and was benched for the play-off final defeat against the Canaries, but he still did enough to be brought back for the following season – albeit he played just the 13 times that year in the Championship and was recalled by the Cottagers in January 2016.
Boro went on somewhat of a splurge in 2015 in order to realise their promotion ambitions, and midway through the season they spent more money with the £8 million capture of Rhodes.
Rhodes had been prolific for Blackburn and he was estimated to be on a whopping £50,000 a week according to Capology, but he never really rediscovered his past form when at the Teessiders.
He netted six times in 18 appearances in his first half-season with the club but after failing to make an impact in the Premier League, Rhodes was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday just a year after signing.
Boro’s most recent season in the Premier League in 2016-17 was a disappointing one as they were comfortably relegated, with Karanka losing his job two months before the end of the campaign.
Having already had a spell in England with Man City, Negredo linked up with his fellow Spaniard Karanka at Boro on a loan deal from Valencia, with an estimated weekly wage of £108,962 – one which Boro paid in its entirety.
He scored nine Premier League goals for Middlesbrough, but ultimately Negredo was powerless to stop the club from dropping back to the Championship.
Back in the Championship after a year away, Boro reached the play-offs under Tony Pulis but ultimately lost out in the semi-finals to Aston Villa.
Their estimated top earner that year on £40,000 per week was Traore, who had moved the year prior from Aston Villa in a swap deal with Albert Adomah.
Traore scored five times and assisted a further 12 goals in the 2017-18 season for the club, and it would be his final year with them as he moved on to Wolves for £18 million in 2018.
Boro had a trio of players on an estimated £35,000 a week in the 2018-19 season, including the long-serving Downing, who played 404 times for the club across two different stints.
This was Downing’s final year for Boro though as he was released at the end of the campaign following a seventh-placed finish, whilst Gestede only played eight times across the season.
Assombalonga meanwhile was a club-record signing for £15 million in back in 2017, and he once again top scored with 16 goals in this particular campaign – they weren’t enough though to propel them into the play-off spots.
Assombalonga once again led the line for Boro this season with his estimated wage of £35,000 – one that eclipsed anyone else in the team.
His goal tally decreased though with just 11 goals this time around and his time at the club would peter out with just five goals in his final season before his departure in 2021.
When signing on loan for Boro in January 2021 from Everton, Bolasie was estimated to be on a whopping £75,000 per week – it’s not fully known if the club paid all of his salary but they’d have only needed to pay half for him to be the top earner.
The silky DR Congo international winger scored three times and assisted a further four goals in his 15 appearances, but they were priced out of a move for him on a permanent basis in the summer due to his salary at the Toffees – he eventually ended up in Turkey at Rizespor.
