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Every Premier League footballer gets paid an obscene amount compared to us normies, but some in particular are stealing a living.
A lethal combination of desperation and far too much money has led to some clubs forking out eye-watering sums for players who don’t justify it.
Several hundreds of thousands of pounds are going to underwhelming players every week and here’s our pick for the most overpaid player at each Premier League club according to their salary on Capology.
It’s a close-run race between Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres but the Swede takes it.
He earns £220,000 a week to be a distant second choice for Mikel Arteta and the Arsenal manager even preferred to play a half-fit Kai Havertz than Gyokeres, who had just scored four in four for Sweden.
Gyokeres clearly does not work in Arsenal’s preferred system and paying him that much for a bit-part role looks untenable.
Aston Villa appear to already have buyer’s remorse when it comes to Garnacho and even if it’s a loan, paying £120,000 a week to him will sting.
The reported terms of the loan deal from Chelsea meant Villa picked up the entirety of his wage but almost as soon as he arrived in Birmingham, he appeared to fall out of favour with Unai Emery.
He’s played 42 minutes across all competitions this season and Villa reportedly agreed to fork out £43m if he hits a certain number of appearances this season.
It’s hard to pick a Bournemouth player for they do not tend to hand out big wages and when they do, it’s to first-teamers who start every week.
One player who does not fit that mould currently is Bafode Diakite who is the third-highest earner on £90,000 but has fallen out of favour since joining last year.
He was dropped in January and failed to make a Premier League appearance past a one-minute cameo against Wolves at the end of the month.
So far he has played that same amount of Premier League football having been brought on late against Sunderland in the Cherries’ most recent match.
He is getting starts in the cups but that’s not what you pay the big bucks for.
Midway through a season that saw him score 22 Premier League goals, Brentford fairly rewarded Thiago with a new contract, but his £110,000 a week salary is now looking awfully high.
The Brazilian has not started the year well with one goal in five games and if he fails to turn it around, he would join a long list of one-season wonders.
Brentford will be particularly keen that does not happen having agreed to pay him £110,000 a week, the most of any player at the club, until June 2031.
Brighton is another club where it is hard to find an obvious contender for overpaid but the strongest currently is Georginio Rutter.
He is on a reported £85,000 a week but has been reduced to a backup role after Charalampos Kostoulas’ impressive start to the campaign.
The Greek is paid £30,000 less and his agent may be knocking on the sporting director’s door if this trend continues.
While you could argue paying Reece James £230,000 a week to be injured a lot of the time is a waste of money, it is feels little in comparison to how much Chelsea are forking out to Wesley Fofana each week.
He arrived during the early BlueCo madness and having paid £70m for him, Chelsea then decided to give him a seven-year deal worth £220,000 a week.
In the four years that has passed, he’s made 77 appearances for the club so Chelsea have given out around £48m for a player that costs them £623,896 for every appearance he makes.
It is an insane amount of money and the same as what Cole Palmer earns despite signing a new deal this year. And Chelsea are paying it all the way up to 2029.
Coventry do not have an obvious contender with most of their players being on a reasonable wage for the league and so you are looking at a player who the club has grown out of.
Woolfenden was brought in from Ipswich and helped towards Coventry’s promotion push but struggled with the Tractor Boys in their previous Premier League campaign.
Coventry signed three centre-backs back in the summer which suggests the writing was on the wall for Woolfenden who reportedly handed in a transfer request. He did not make a move though and so Coventry are paying £30,000 for a player they seem to not really want.
You could take your pick of which Palace striker is overpaid but even though Strand Larsen is on the very high £125,000 a week, we will opt for Eddie Nketiah and his £90,000 a week salary.
They signed him in 2024 when there was still some hope he could develop into a good Premier League striker but that just hasn’t happened.
He’s got 12 goals in 64 appearances for Palace and has a contract all the way until 2029.
Grealish became a cult hero at Everton last season and David Moyes was very keen to bring the winger back for a second year’s loan from Manchester City.
But the Toffees are paying most of Grealish’s salary, reported to be around £220k. That’s a lot, even without considering his meagre output and age north of 30.
Fulham are paying £90,000 a week to Emile Smith Rowe but he has been relegated to an option off the bench.
They gave him that deal in 2024 as he signed from Arsenal but injuries and lacklustre performances have meant he has not made a huge impact since moving across London.
Fulham have since signed better and more reliable players, meaning they now have an expensive player on the bench.
There’s nothing wrong with getting an experienced keeper in as your number two but when he is on the same salary as your number one, it looks like an overpay.
Hull brought Butland back to England from Rangers and offered him a deal of £40,000 a week for the next two years.
He’s already 33 and has yet to play a minute this season.
Ipswich’s big earners are all consistent starters for the team which means you have to look at players they had during the promotion campaign.
In the winter window, they signed Anis Mehmeti from Bristol City but he never really performed and has become even more of a figure on the periphery since.
He’s only played one game which was in the League Cup and looks likely to leave in January with better options ahead of him.
Arriving from Newcastle, Longstaff played 23 games in Leeds’ successful task of staying up last year but has fallen out of favour this campaign.
He’s made just one Premier League appearance out of a possible seven and 134 of his 153 minutes this season have come in the League Cup.
That means that Leeds’ fourth-highest earner on £90,000 a week is an expensive sub.
Tempting as it is to pick the £250,000 that goes to Florian Wirtz every week, at least he’s on the pitch which cannot be said about Federico Chiesa.
He barely played in his first year for the club and while his Premier League appearances increased to 26 last season, it still only amounted to 318 minutes on the pitch.
This season, he’s been left out of Liverpool’s Champions League squad which shows what they think of him and his £160,000 salary.
What was the point in spending £30m on Rayan Ait-Nouri if you are simply never going to play him.
It is easy to forget about the former Wolves man who was once one of the best attacking full-backs in the league for he has made just 34 appearances since moving to Manchester in 2025 but not a single one so far this year.
Even in the Champions League match against AEK Athens in which City rotated heavily, he played just 18 minutes.
He is on £130,000 but appears to have fallen completely out of favour.
Honestly, take your pick. Maybe you fancy the £130,000 going to Manuel Ugarte or the £110,000 going to Joshua Zirkzee. You could go for the newer option of £250,000 going to Youri Tielemans. Even Karl Darlow is on £35,000.
But the winner has to be Marcus Rashford who is on £300,000 a week, making him the seventh-highest earner in the league.
United gave Rashford that contract in 2023 and since then he has fallen out of favour, fallen out with a manager, spent a season on loan and now does little to justify his salary.
Ramsey was billed as a PSR signing from Aston Villa, why then did Newcastle decide to tank their own finances by coughing up £150,000 a week?
He played 1,445 minutes of Premier League football last season and considering Newcastle spent almost £100m on midfield reinforcements this summer, that suggests they do not see him as first choice.
As tempting as it was to give a 20-goal striker a new improved deal, Forest should have realised that an over-30 player was unlikely to replicate similar levels in the future.
A long-term injury ruled him out of most of the 2025-26 season but the club signed Liam Delap in the summer who has come in as number one choice and is on the same £100,000 that Wood is on.
Sunderland are one of the hardest teams to do simply because their players all seem good value.
Granit Xhaka is the top earner but few would deny he is worth the £110,000 a week while Nordi Mukiele and Enzo Le Fee also justify their big wages.
You could argue that £75,000 for Thomas Meunier and £70,000 for Kevin Danso is a bit of an overpayment but they are by no means outrageous and so perhaps the best of a bad bunch is Chemsdine Talbi and his £40,000 a week wage.
He played 28 times in the league last year with six goal involvements but after a 30-minute cameo in the opening game against Ipswich this season, he has not appeared since.
Give it a year and the likes of Sandro Tonali and Xavi Simons may take this spot but for now, we will pick the player Spurs are paying £120,000 a week to sit in the stands.
Richarlison signed his current deal in 2022 and has one year left but Roberto De Zerbi has frozen him out of the squad, making that money feel very wasted.
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