Methodology
How PSRwatch works.
Every club page on PSRwatch is built the same way: audited accounts first, public wage and transfer data second, a clearly labelled forecast third. This page explains each step in plain English.
PSRwatch starts from each club's last audited accounts filed at Companies House, layers on publicly reported wages and transfer fees, and forecasts football income for the 2026/27 season. Squad cost — wages plus transfer fees spread over each contract — is then compared with that income. Spending between 85% and 115% of income attracts a financial levy, and beyond 115% points deductions begin. Every figure is an independent PSRwatch estimate, never an official ruling.
Step 1: audited accounts set the baseline
The foundation of every estimate is the club's most recent audited accounts, filed at Companies House. Those filings give the reliable, checked numbers: revenue, wage bill, transfer-fee costs and profit or loss. The catch is timing — accounts arrive months, sometimes more than a year, after the season they describe. They are the anchor, not the current picture.
Step 2: wages and transfers update the picture
On top of the accounts baseline, PSRwatch adds what has changed since: transfer records from Transfermarkt and public wage data from Capology. Where a wage is not publicly known, PSRwatch fills the gap with a clearly labelled estimate rather than a guess presented as fact. Where a transfer fee was never disclosed, it stays undisclosed — PSRwatch does not invent a number. The data sources page explains what each input provides.
Step 3: a forecast fills the gap to today
Because accounts lag the season, PSRwatch applies deterministic revenue assumptions to project each club's football income forward to 2026/27. Newly promoted clubs receive a Premier League revenue uplift, since carrying Championship-level income into a Premier League forecast would distort their position. The result is a forecast of spending room — the gap between estimated squad cost and the spending thresholds — updated as new data lands.
The 85% and 115% rules in plain English
The Premier League's squad-cost rule compares what a club spends on its squad — wages, transfer fees spread over each player's contract, and agent and bonus costs — with its football income.
There are two lines. Spending between 85% and 115% of football income brings a financial levy: a fine calculated on the amount of the overspend. Crossing 115% brings a fixed 6-point deduction, plus 1 further point for every £6.5m spent beyond that line. PSRwatch headlines the 115% line because points deductions are the sporting sanction; the 85% levy line is the working reference. For the full background, read what is the Premier League squad-cost rule?
What "estimate" means here
Every number on PSRwatch is an independent estimate built from public data. Nothing on the site is an official Premier League, EFL or UEFA calculation, and PSRwatch is not endorsed by any league or club. Estimated figures are labelled as estimates wherever they appear, undisclosed fees are never invented, and the known weaknesses of the model are published openly on the limitations page. PSRwatch also checks its own accuracy: estimates are frozen before each new filing arrives and scored against the audited numbers — see backtesting.
Go deeper
- Data sources — what Companies House, Transfermarkt and Capology each provide.
- Limitations — where the estimates are weakest, stated plainly.
- Backtesting — how PSRwatch scores itself against filed accounts.
- About PSRwatch — the project in brief, including the forecast approach.
- The squad-cost rule explained — the 85% and 115% thresholds in full.
- Transfer calculator — try the arithmetic on a real scenario.