Research shows the staggering financial losses made by PSG and other European giants

With the football club season drawing to a close, attention will soon turn to the wild west that is the transfer market.

Soon enough, Europe's giants will start splashing money left, right and centre, in the hope that a new superstar will push them onto league and Champions League glory in 2023/24.

Football finance is a pretty hot topic at the moment, particularly in the wake of the Premier League charging Manchester City with breaking its financial rules.

You can't talk to your mates - or even strangers on Twitter - for five minutes without someone pretending to know the ins and outs of a club's spending despite not being an accountant or a lawyer.

However, a night in shining armour has come along and done the all-important number crunching.

One Reddit user has conducted an in-depth study of the spending of clubs across Europe during the 2021/22 season.

The figures - obtained from official statements and financial reports - are revealing, particularly the impact that Paris Saint-Germain signing Lionel Messi in 2021 had.

In 2021/22, PSG's wage bill was by far the largest in world football.

The French giants dropped an astounding €729.0m on player salaries, £25.6m of which went to Messi in his first season at the Parc des Princes.

For the purpose of the study, wage cost includes wages and salaries of all employees, image rights, bonuses, social security contributions, pensions, termination benefits and other costs.

PSG spending a lot on wages isn't surprising, but what is interesting is that their wage spend accounted for 109% of their revenue.

PSG spend a huge amount on wages. Image: Reddit

Across the season PSG - who won Ligue 1 but were eliminated at the semi-final stage of the Champions League - made a loss of €368.7M, the largest loss in European football.

The next biggest spenders were Real Madrid, who spent €519.0m on wages, 72% of their revenue.

Los Blancos actually made a profit of €12.9m, partially thanks to the £70m sale of Casemiro to Manchester United in 2022.

The Red Devils were the third highest wage spenders with €482.4m, followed by Barcelona (€463.8m) and Liverpool (€432.0m).

Many people accuse Manchester City of outspending their opponents, but the Premier League champions ranked sixth for wage spending with €417.6, accounting for just 57% of their total revenue.

That year City posted a profit of €49.2m, the highest in the Premier League.

The sides making up the top 10 highest-wage spenders are Chelsea, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid.

The full rankings can be found here.