Man United bottom of league for points won per pound spent on players' wages

The Red Devils had the second highest wage bill in the Premier League, at £221 million, equating to £3.2 million in player wages for each of the 69 points Jose Mourinho's men gathered.

It was the highest wage per point spend in the league, finishing just below Man City, at £2.9m per point, followed by relegated Sunderland, with £2.8m.

Academics at the University of Salford's Centre for Sports Business, who researched the figures, say once again a club's wage bill remains the best indicator of finishing positions - with those spending the most finishing higher.

MORE: Manchester United to play Sampdoria in Dublin friendlyBut in an alternative league table of wages spent per points gained, Bournemouth and Hull came top with just £700,000 of wages spent - with Man Utd bottom.

Overall top spenders were Man City, with a wage bill of £225m, just £4m more than Man Utd, followed by eventual champions Chelsea on £218m.

Spurs finished second in the league, spending £121m on wages - around £100m less than the clubs around them.

Arsenal spent £200m and Liverpool £166m before a big drop to the "second tier" of clubs, led by Everton with £83m.

Chris Brady, director of the Centre for Sports Business at the university, said: "While tiny margins can affect the final league positions of EPL teams, the reality is the EPL is effectively three mini-leagues, by wage bill - the top six, the middle seven and the bottom seven.

"Only two clubs, Sunderland and Bournemouth, for entirely different reasons, managed to finish outside of their mini-league.

"Sunderland finished 10 places below that of their expected position by wage bill, Bournemouth finished eight places above their predicted position."

The team at Salford University found that when ranking managers/head coaches by their ability to finish above their wage position, then Eddie Howe (plus eight), Claude Puel (plus five), Mauricio Pochettino (plus four) and Sean Dyche (plus three) are the top four performers.

The worst performer was David Moyes' Sunderland with a (minus 10) finish. Other poor showings were the Watford manager, Walter Mazzarri, who took Watford from a (plus six) position in week 25 to a (minus one) position at the finish, Mark Hughes with a (minus four) finish and Jose Mourinho with a (minus four) Manchester United finish.