Apparently there were a ton of bonuses last year around the league win. Not good.
But, in a matter of days we've shed 2 of the highest earners (Rio/Vida) and soon should be free of Anderson, Nani and possibly Evra.
Those 5 players would in theory lower our wage bill by somewhere around 26m!!!
This year will be lower too, not a single bonus to be paid out
Also, would wager we're still going to be 50m behind City when your 2014 figures are released. Can't imagine Fernandinho, Negredo, Navas and so forth are on small contracts. Can't believe we're above Chelsea though. First time in over a decade.
Finally, you mentioned our wage bill being up - but we also had significantly more profits, and a record quarter for revenue. Before the new kit deal. So we're actually in surprisingly good health, all considering. That's hte worst bit. If on the field success was truly crucial to the Glazer's profits, then we'd prioritise that. But it's not, not really. The 4th place trophy is all we really need.
One more highlight from the call/report - it was confirmed Rooney's new deal was slightly less than his old one, at about 230k. Which is obviously still obscene, but shows oyu just how reliable the UK papers are. Pretty much every single one said it was a huge increase.