Times are changing in the world of football, with once cash-rich clubs now on the verge of disaster. With some football leagues in danger of collapsing, fans are beginning to realize that some of the clubs they’d once thought had strong foundations, were built on nothing but hot air and sand.
All bets are off now regarding which clubs will fall by the wayside and which ones will flourish as the decade develops.
Among all the chaos, sports bettors and footy players continue to go about their business, with the former studiously perusing the net for the best selection of free bets and the latter just focusing on banging in goals or making last-ditch tackles.
With sportsbooks and rival teams all watching how things unfold at Chelsea, we take a look at those Premier League players – who despite the financial turmoil around them – continue to rake in the big bucks.
Chelsea still have some massive earners on their books and some could be offloaded in the summer
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – Man Utd
Raking in £26.5m for the year is not bad for a striker who is past his best and aged 37, but no one can argue with the number of goals he is banging in at Old Trafford this season.
However, plenty of fans has questioned whether his elephantine ego has actually had a net negative effect on the Man Utd squad as a whole, with the Red Devils likely to go yet another season with no silverware to show for their efforts.
Getting Ronaldo on a free transfer was always likely to set Man Utd back when it came to their mammoth wage bill
2. Kevin De Bruyne – Man City
Manchester is clearly the place to be if you want to earn the big bucks. This Belgian midfield maestro has come good since Christmas and is arguably worth the £20.8m he earns for 12 months of on-field action.
Another three Man Utd players follow closely behind De Bruyne in the earnings stakes, in the form of David De Gea, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.
3. Romelu Lukaku – Chelsea
Last summer’s transfer window was all about Chelsea breaking the bank to bring newly crowned Serie A champion Romelu Lukaku to Stamford Bridge.
Despite the enormous transfer fee that was paid to Inter Milan, Lukaku’s wage bill is still thought to be a whopping £16.9m. Not bad for a man being kept on the bench by Kai Havertz.
Between them, Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City have the top 13 earners in the Premier League, with only Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk squeaking in as the division’s 14th highest earner.
