By Kieran Maguire

7th Aug, 2023 | 6:52am

Kieran Maguire shares '£62m' Leicester City reveal - 'if that fails...'

Leicester City will be forced to announce huge wage cuts if they fail to return to the Premier League within three years.

That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the financial pressure on the Foxes to return to the top flight.

According to Capology, Leicester will have the highest wage bill in the Championship in 2023/24 at £62million.

Fellow relegated sides Southampton and Leeds follow respectively with wage bills of £52million and £44million respectively.

Leicester have sold James Maddison to Tottenham for £40million and Harvey Barnes to Newcastle for £38million to help raise funds, while Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans and Ayoze Perez all left on free transfers to help balance wages.

Maguire explained that Leicester will have three years of parachute payments to acclimatise to the Championship, but if they haven’t returned to the top flight by then more cutting will be needed.

“The sale of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes and the departure of Youri Tilemans will significantly cut Leiciester’s wage bill,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“It was over £180million during their final year in the Premier League, therefore a lot of cutting is required.

“Even so, Leicester City are still expected to have the highest wage bill in the Championship at an estimated £62million.

“It could leave them with a lopsided team, but they have three years of parachute payments to acclimatise.

“In an ideal world they will use that money wisely to return to the Premier League this season.

“If that fails, they will require further adjustments.“

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