Manchester City have knocked Chelsea off top spot to take over as the Premier League’s biggest payers, while we couldn't afford to pay HALF Frank Lampard's £150,000 a week wages ... or a THIRD of Wayne Rooney's £200,000 a week.
Chelsea’s accounts reveal the overall wages paid out by the club in the year ending June 2012 fell by £18million to £171m.
The total is well below the amount forked out by champions City, whose huge wage bill rose above £200m.
The figure for salaries paid by the Blues, who won their first European Cup last year, is still ahead of Manchester United’s total of £160m.
The overall wage-bill reduction shows how serious Chelsea are about trimming costs in their bid to comply with Uefa’s financial fair play rules.