Manchester City owner Sheik Mansour is looking at quite an impressive bill after reports coming out of England have put a number on the difference between the costs of Sven-Göran Eriksson squad and the one that Mark Hughes has assembled.

Via TimesOnline

It means that City’s players earn an average of nearly £2.3 million a year — or £44,000 a week — well over twice the average basic salary in the Barclays Premier League.

That figure will swell again if Hughes makes more signings this summer to complement the £12 million arrival of Gareth Barry, the England midfield player, from Aston Villa, even if the manager hopes to offload about a dozen members of his squad.

The total value of City’s squad has also rocketed since Hughes took charge. It has reached £172.3 million, nearly three times the value — £66.4 million — of the squad that Eriksson left behind when he was sacked 12 months ago. Hughes has committed £133.7 million to transfer fees on 13 players, although when the wages so far paid to those new arrivals are included, the outlay is closer to £158 million.

City’s wage bill is still less than those of the established top four of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, but the increase in such a short period of time is dramatic and offers another clear indication of the money that Sheikh Mansour, the club’s billionaire owner, is prepared to spend to turn the team into a force on and off the pitch.

Whereas Rolando Bianchi, the former Italy Under-21 striker since sold to Torino, was the highest earner under Eriksson with a weekly wage of £50,000, it is less than a third of what Robinho, the highest-paid player in the Premier League, earns under Hughes.

Robinho’s £160,000-a-week salary accounts for more than 10 per cent of the £79.4 million paid in wages to 35 players under Hughes’s command. City’s wage bill for 32 players when Eriksson was in charge was £45.3 million.