With Aston Villa in danger of breaching the Premier League’s PSR rules, we look at the players who could be sold.
June be a critical month for Aston Villa. The Premier League’s accounting period profit and sustainability calculations closes on 30 June and Villa are believed to be the only club at serious risk of failing to stay inside the acceptable limit for financial losses over the rolling three year period – and that could force the club to consider selling players it wants to keep hold of.
The Athletic have estimated that Aston Villa can’t post a loss of more than £15m for the 2024/25 season – and given that the club has posted pre-tax losses of £206.2m for the two years prior, they could be cutting it very fine indeed. Champions League prize and broadcast money will have helped considerably, as will the sales of Douglas Luiz and Jhon Durán, but it’s still believed that they will run it close.
That means that Villa are highly unlikely to confirm any transfers until July, as they won’t want to put any fresh spending on the balance sheet unless the situation is better than it seems from the outside. More importantly, however, they may find themselves forced to sell players in order to stay in the black and avoid a potential points deduction.
With that worry in mind, we’ve looked at the players who could conceivably depart Villa Park over the days of June should Villa need to raise more funds. Only Villa know for sure what their accounts look like, but if they need some ready cash to dodge a deduction, these are the players most likely to be moved on.
Leon Bailey
Alleged interest from the Saudi Pro League in Jamaica international Bailey would be the ideal solution to the money worries – Villa would likely be paid over the odds and they would be selling a player who found it tough to replicate his impressive 2023/24 season form over the past year.
Al-Nassr – the side that signed Durán – are the team supposedly keeping tabs, but they’ve been linked with a huge range of players, many of them wingers, and it’s far from clear who their priority targets are, and as such not at all evident that Villa would be able to conclude a deal before the end of June.
Lucas Digne
The 31-year-old left-back kept Ian Maatsen out of the starting line-up for most of the 2024/25 season but it’s been reported that Atlético Madrid are interested in the experienced Frenchman – and that Digne himself is keen to play more Champions League football as he battles to keep his place in the France squad.
The bad news is that Atléti are more interested in striking a deal for Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson, and Digne is likely a back-up plan. Unless negotiations over Robertson move along quickly, a deal for Digne may not take place in time to save Villa’s financial situation. This is probably Villa’s last chance to cash in on Digne if there is interest, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see negotiations take place after the PSR deadline anyway.
Jacob Ramsey
The home-grown midfielder’s name seldom seems to be far from the gossip columns, and teams including Newcastle and West Ham are still said to be interested in striking a deal – not that his persistent presence on the rumour mill has led to any solid negotiations so far.
Ramsey has been reported – admittedly by Football Insider – to be “unhappy” at Villa Park due to a lack of starts, and if that’s true then it could mean that he’s high on the list of saleable assets. Ramsey would likely fetch a solid sum and his departure wouldn’t be too bitter of a blow to Unai Emery’s game plan, but a team needs to make an offer for this one to take place. That doesn’t appear to have happened as of the time of writing.
Emiliano Buendía
The Argentine attacking midfielder only signed a new contract at Villa Park in January but there remains speculation about his future following a season devastated by a serious ACL injury.
Caught Offside are among the sources that suggest newly-promoted Leeds United may make a bid, with a likely price tag in the region of £20m. That should be enough to keep Villa out of trouble, if they can get a deal done in time.
Matty Cash
The right-back has been the subject of supposed interest from AC Milan – but valuation could prove a problem, with Villa supposedly seeking £30m and the Serie A side less than interested in paying it.
It’s also not a story that’s been carried by any of the more reliable media outlets as yet, and so it may stay confined to the gossip columns. If there’s any truth in the price tag then it’s probable that Villa would prefer to sell other players, but Cash isn’t important enough to Emery that he couldn’t be sold to raise some… well, cash.
Morgan Rogers
Mentioned because his name has cropped up of late in connection with a move to Chelsea – The Daily Mail seem to be the main source for that rumour – but it seems highly unlikely that Villa will let the England international leave.
Chelsea, for their part, have other priorities and are only liable to make enquiries for Rogers if they fail to land other players. Not a transfer that’s especially likely to happen from either end, then, and one that would surely come too late to be relevant to Villa’s battle to stay clear of PSR problems.
Ollie Watkins
The last resort. The fact that Villa rejected a £40m bid for their record Premier League goalscorer out of hand may imply that they don’t need all that much money to keep the balance book straight – but if the situation does look desperate, Watkins is their best source of serious cash.
Arsenal seem to be more interested in Viktor Gyökeres and Benjamin Šeško as it stands, but if Villa need to put Watkins up for sale then they could likely be tempted back to the negotiating table. Villa would want at least £60m, but that may be achievable, and would likely be sufficient to stave off any threat of a points deduction. The Daily Mirror are among outlets suggesting that a second bid from Arsenal remains a possibility. The potential for a transfer, weighed up against the risk of a points deduction, begs the question - just how many points is Watkins worth in a season?
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