Manchester United haven't had the best of seasons on the pitch, and newly-released numbers on the top earners in the Premier League won't fill fans of the Red Devils with much joy.
According to figures from L'Equipe, Ralf Rangnick's squad contains four of the five highest earners in the English top flight. However, with the team down in sixth place with just nine games of the season remaining, and with an uncertain summer up ahead, some supporters will have questions about whether their expensively assembled squad is performing to its potential.
Cristiano Ronaldo is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the highest Premier League earner on the list. However, the Portuguese star is not the only summer signing to crack the top five.
Ronaldo tops the pile, with earnings of £26.4m per year or £2.2m per month according to L'Equipe 's numbers, meaning his annual earnings are higher than the transfer fee paid by United to bring the veteran back to Old Trafford after a stint at Juventus. The 37-year-old has top-scored for the club since his August switch, and recently scored a match-winning hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur, but his goals haven't been enough to help United launch a title challenge.
Summer arrivals Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane have also made the cut, with the England winger is fourth with annual earnings of £18m, with former Real Madrid defender Varane in fifth with £15.6m a year, or £1.3m a month. Sancho hasn't had the best of seasons, with England manager Gareth Southgate omitting the ex-Dortmund man from his squad for the March internationals, while injuries have restricted Varane to just 24 appearances since arriving from Spain.
This leaves the other spots free for two players who were in the Premier League last season. Impressively, one of those is also on United's books, with David de Gea's £19.2m annual earnings enough for a podium spot in third, with Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne pipping him with £20.4m per year.
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None of the United players come close to the pay-packets of some of the game's highest earners, though. Paris Saint-Germain duo Neymar and Lionel Messi are earning salaries which dwarf those of the Premier League men, with the Brazilian on £40.7m and summer arrival Messi on £33.7m.
The big names weren't enough to carry PSG into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, though. Both stars were on the field for the devastating second-leg defeat against Real Madrid, prompting a backlash which has prompted former France forward Thierry Henry to speak out.
"Last week, PSG fans booed Messi. How can you boo the greatest of all-time? The guy that has assisted the most goals in Ligue 1?," Henry told Amazon Prime FR after the weekend defeat at Monaco. "Today, without Messi the team created nothing."
