Matt Maher: Walking the PSR tightrope is nothing new for Aston Villa

Ever since Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens first arrived in 2018, the club has faced the challenge of juggling the big ambitions of the owners with the need to stay on the right side of the rules.

Villa’s huge outlay on transfer fees under their predecessor Tony Xia and subsequent failure to win promotion back to the Premier League meant PSR was an acute issue for the new regime right from the get-go.

It is why the £56.7million sale and lease-back of Villa Park, to a company owned by Sawiris and Edens, remains one of the most significant deals in the club’s recent history.

Taking advantage of that since-closed loophole in the rule book ensured Villa could just about stay just about within PSR limits for the 2018-19 financial year without cashing in on their star player, Jack Grealish.

Of course, it is impossible to predict how things would have played out had Villa been forced to accept the advances of Tottenham, or any of Grealish’s other suitors, in the summer of 2018 or in the following January window.

Yet without their talisman, it is difficult to envisage promotion in 2019. At the very least, the path of the last seven years would have been very different.

The stadium sale was the first example of Villa’s willingness to push things as far as they could with PSR. It is why when you read stories about the club potentially taking advantage of the latest loophole of choice, by selling their women’s team, you can well believe them.

That is the accountancy trick pulled by Chelsea, who despite their continuing largesse in the transfer market were able to report a pre-tax profit of £128.4m for the most recent financial year, thanks largely to selling their women’s team and other subsidiaries to parent company BlueCo for nearly £200m.

Just as with any stadium and lease sales, the deal must be done at “fair market value” but provided clubs are careful on that score, it would appear another work-around to the PSR rules has been found.

Villa’s solution last season, as we know, was more straightforward. The last-gasp sales of Douglas Luiz to Juventus, Tim Iroegbunam to Everton and Omari Kellyman to Chelsea brought in close to £70m which allowed the club to squeeze under the limits and diffuse what director of football operations, Damian Vidagany, described as a “ticking PSR bomb.” Without those sales, all completed in the final days of last June, club bosses feared being hit with a deduction of between 10 to 12 points.

The early days of this summer are likely to be considerably less frantic. Villa, who recently confirmed a pre-tax loss of £85.9m for the 2023-24 year to follow one of £119m for the previous 12 months, remain tight as always on PSR, though their figures for the current campaign will be boosted by Champions League riches which are likely to clock in at around £100m. The club also got some big sales in early during the January transfer window, most notably through the departure of Jhon Duran to Saudi Arabia for a fee which could eventually top £70m. Add in improved sponsorship deals with Adidas and Betano and estimates of a £100m boost in revenues for the current campaign seem more than reasonable.

But you’ve always got to be planning ahead. While it is a fact success under Unai Emery has been achieved despite one of the lowest net spends on transfer fees in the Premier League, costs elsewhere have shot up considerably, most particularly when it comes to a wage bill which in 2023-24 stood at £252m, up from £136m two seasons previously. 

Villa are expected to breach this season’s Uefa cost control rules, which permit clubs to spend a maximum of 80 per cent of their revenues on wages, transfer fees and agents’ fees. It might also be noted Emery signed a bumper new contract, which made him one of the highest paid managers in Europe, at the end of last season. Those costs and others will be factored into the 2024-25 accounts.

Though senior figures are quick to dismiss the notion it is “qualify for the Champions League or bust” for Villa this season, they do acknowledge there is a minimum requirement for the club to be playing in Europe in order to keep building the brand and helping those off-field revenues.

Yet it only takes a quick look at the numbers to understand what a difference competing in the Champions League makes and just how important the next few weeks are if Villa want to continue their current rate of ascent under Emery. 

Though the calculation isn’t a precise one, the prize money on offer in the Champions League is on average more than four times that in the Europa League. Divide the extra £100m Villa are expected to gain this season by four and it makes a colossal change to their revenues. If the club are operating with the same overheads next season but playing in a less lucrative competition, so making the PSR number work becomes more of a problem.

The simple solution is selling players which, again, the club have been open in admitting must be a key part of their strategy.

“It isn’t so much about the ones you sell but the ones you buy,” president of football operations Monchi told a group of journalists earlier in the season. Villa certainly have no shortage of prized assets and the sales of Duran and Moussa Diaby have already demonstrated their willingness to be pragmatic and cash in should the opportunity arise.

It would be better though if, as in the days of Grealish, you were able to call your own shots and not feel under any pressure to keep the star players you want.

Maximising the loopholes remains one tactic and can buy you valuable time. But the best way of winning in the long-term, remains winning in the short-term.