3points It could be that some of the "wages" numbers are not too inaccurate, but perhaps don't take into account all the add-ons that modern players seem to get (such as apprearance money, goal bonuses, etc).
A couple of years ago there was a report about average salaries in the Championship at around £9k per week. I suspect that has gone up a bit, but I do think people over estimate what players really earn. From the last accounts (to 30 June 2019)
Players - 63
Football mgmt and coaching staff - 114
Admin staff - 74
Staff under employed under govt training schemes - 18
Matchday staff - 280
Total = 549
Total wages and salaries £36.1m (excluding social security costs & pensions)
So, with a bit of estimating here's where I get to.
For all non-playing staff (inc team mgmt) - say £6m (being 114+74 @ £25k per head per year plus a further £1m for the manager and coaching team)
remaining wages = £30m
I know approx half of the player number = academy players - assume £2k per week X 32 players = £3.3m
First team squad bill = £36m - £6m - £3m = £27m
average = £27m / 32 = £16.2k per week
I think that's maximum - I've probably underestimated all the coaching staff, admin staff, etc as someone like Nigel Howe would be on several hundred thousand just on his own. The period of these accounts was when Moore got his pay rise, and we had the likes of Aluko, Barrow, Bacuna, Illori, Gunter, McCleary, Baldock, Meyler, Blackett, etc
It would be interesting to know how it compares now that all those names at the end are gone-
in the last 2 years the list of players sold or released is huge-
Mannone, Popa, Barrow, Adams, Blackett, Gunter, Obita, Mccleary, Bodvarsson, Van den Berg, Kelly, Mcshane, Meyler and Edwards. thats 14 players that were morethan likely all on over 10k p/w(there is others but were all on low wages or youth contracts)
We have replaced those senior players with Puscas, Joao, Morrison, Rafael, Ejaria and Laurent and the rest are youth team players.
we are in a much better place than then and likely we will have more wages spare in the summer once Aluko and Baldock are gone. Also shows that a bloated squad did not work. If we had not steadied the ship we would be in league 1 due to point deductions, broke and our academy would have been a waste.
No matter which league we are playing in next season I hope we don't undo all the good work, focus on progressing youth, getting the talent tied down to long term contracts and filling a few gaps. no more than 3 senior signings please and only if they are young and better than what is in the youth ranks please.