Leeds United to face ‘challenge’ increasing wage bill after securing Premier League survival
Leeds United’s biggest challenge will be around increasing their wage bill if they remain in the Premier League this season.
That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Whites will be looking to gradually spend more on wages over the coming years.
Daniel Farke’s side have moved a step closer to securing their Premier League status for another season after beating Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford on Monday (13 April).
The Yorkshire giants currently sit 15th in the top-flight table, six points above third-bottom Tottenham.
Leeds’ finances would receive a significant boost if they can avoid the drop this season as they look to improve their revenues at Elland Road.
How can Leeds increase their spending?
Leeds posted their latest accounts for 2024-25 earlier this month, showing their revenue increased from £128million in 2023-24 to £137m in their promotion-winning campaign.
Meanwhile, the Whites’ wage bill surged from £84m to £108m across the same period.
| Financial Metric | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
| Matchday Revenue | £31m | £32m |
| Broadcast Revenue | £54m | £47m |
| Commercial Revenue | £43m | £58m |
| Total Revenue | £128m | £137m |
| Wage Bill | £84m | £108m |
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed the next steps for Leeds if they avoid relegation this season.
“The challenge really is, can they stay in the Premier League for a while?” said Borson.
“Can they stop being that yo-yo club and start to have two, three or four seasons in the Premier League, but also at the same time managing that wage bill, which is of course the hardest challenge for all these teams. Can you continue to succeed on the pitch while keeping the wage bill under control?
“We know that lots of clubs have really made a choice and gone down a route where they say, ‘Look, either we're going to invest heavily on the wage bill and gamble, or we're going to be very reserved on the wage bill and accept that we're probably going to get relegated straight away. We'll try and do that three or four times, and then in five, six, seven years’ time, we'll start investing more’. That's just not going to work for Leeds United.”
Why Leeds have one eye on Championship promotion race
Borson revealed Leeds will have an eye on which clubs are promoted to the Premier League if they stay up this season.
“What they need to do is just somehow try and put a few seasons together, then start to gradually increase the wage spend, which is a good proxy for where you're going to finish and hope also that one or two of the relegation places are taken by clearly inferior teams,” said Borson.
“If they survive this season, they'll be looking down and going, ‘Well, we really should be finishing above Coventry next season. Who else is going to come up? Who's the team coming up through the play-offs? Can we fluke it that a team come up that's going to be clearly not good enough next season?’.
“It makes life a lot easier because all of sudden you're talking about one relegation place, not three. That's the balance they've got to do, but staying in the Premier League for them is obviously key.”