DESPITE failing to finish in the top half of the Premiership last season, Deloitte's annual review of football finance yesterday revealed that Newcastle United still boast the fifth-highest wage bill in English football.

The Magpies paid out £52m in wages last year, a total that is higher than that of any other club outside of the established big four of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Newcastle's wage bill is still half that of FA Cup and Carling Cup winners Chelsea (£114m), but after purchasing the Hall family's 41.8 per cent shareholding in the club last week, prospective owner Mike Ashley will be desperate to see results on the field begin to keep pace with the investment being made off it.

Newcastle's most recent set of company accounts revealed that wages had progressed beyond the 50 per cent of turnover ceiling that is widely regarded as the optimal business model for a football club, but yesterday's survey suggests that the St James' Park club's spending is merely mirroring that of the rest of the Premiership.

Total top-flight wages spiralled by nine per cent last year, and finance experts are predicting that the bumper new Sky Television deal will see the first £200,000-aweek footballer within the next three years.

Deloitte's annual review showed that the average salary of all top-flight players was just under £1m in 2005-06, with the biggest stars earning in excess of £6m-a-year.

England international Michael Owen is the highest-paid player in the North-East - the Newcastle striker's current contract is understood to be worth around £110,000-a-week - but Dan Jones, partner of Deloitte's sports business group, expects the £200,000- a-week ceiling to be broken shortly.

"We expect wages to go up pretty significantly over the next couple of years but we are not alarmed by that because there is so much more money coming in because of the new TV deal," said Jones.

"We do expect the average annual earnings for a Premier League player next season will be in the region of £1.1m and that over the next three years we will see English football's first player to earn £10m per annum from a club, equivalent to £200,000 per week."

That player is unlikely to play for either Newcastle, Middlesbrough or Sunderland, but with the likes of Frank Lampard, John Terry and Wayne Rooney likely to be involved in contract discussions over the next 12 months, that will have a domino effect in the rest of the country, with average wages at the region's three biggest clubs expected to rise.

Last season's highest proportional wage rises came at Tottenham, Everton, Charlton and Aston Villa, while the two Premiership clubs to cut wage costs were Fulham and Manchester City.

Total operating profits in the Premiership fell for the first time in six years last season to £138m, but the advent of a new £2.7bn TV deal means they are expected to double next season.

That will be good news for the new generation of overseas owners who have bought into the likes of M a n c h e s t e r United, Liverpool, Aston Villa and West Ham in recent years, but it will be bad news for clubs in the C h a m p i - onship.

The gap between the average club revenue in the top two English leagues was a record £56m in the 2005-06 season, and increased financial inequality will mean it is expected to stretch to more than £70m next season.

Championship clubs' total wage costs last season increased by five per cent but the total Championship wage bill currently stands at £228m, barely twice the wage bill of Chelsea alone.

At least 11 Championship clubs have a net debt of more than £10m, but the gap between the top two leagues in England is not growing as quickly as the gap between the Premiership and other European leagues.

"Ten years ago, there was pretty close competition between the Premier League and Serie A,"

said Jones. "Next season, the Premier League is going to be one billion euros ahead of Serie A.

"That is a good endorsement of the Premier League's decision to stick to selling their rights collectively, whereas in Italy and Spain they have gone down the road of selling their rights individually."

Yesterday's report also revealed that fees to agents from Premier League and Football League clubs in 2005-06 were estimated to be more than £50m.

Arsenal's borrowing arrangements for the Emirates Stadium made them the most indebted club in the Premiership, with their net debt of £262m leaving them ahead of Chelsea (£180m), Fulham (£167m) and Manchester City (£94m).