Aston Villa co-owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris pictured at Stamford Bridge
Aston Villa co-owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris pictured at Stamford Bridge
Football finance expert Stefan Borson expects that Aston Villa will have things in hand ahead of Monday evening's PSR 'deadline' - and he believes that, if Chelsea can take advantage of certain loopholes in the rules, then Villa have every right to do the same in order to comply with the rules.
While things wouldn't appear to be as dicey as 12 months ago - Villa had to sell Douglas Luiz before the end of June so as not to breach the financial rules and face sanctions as a consequence - largely due to their Champions League money over the course of the 2024/25 season, Villa must still be mindful of making too much of a loss.
A significant player sale would remove any immediate issues for the club and allow them to then head into July, and the new season, with the freedom to attack the market in the hunt for reinforcements themselves, but Premier League rivals Chelsea worked out how to tick the PSR box without a sale last year.
They sold two hotels near to Stamford Bridge to sister company Blueco for £76.5m in September, having sold the Women's team to the same holding company - also owned by owner Todd Boehly - for almost £200m last June, which came to light in their accounts in March of this year.
Borson considers that Villa have the option to do similar - the Premier League clubs decided against removing the loophole from the rules - in the event that they are at risk of breaching PSR and don't sell a player before tonight.
"The big one which has been flagged up consistently has been Aston Villa," Borson told . "They're not looking, as far as we know, to desperately get a player out of the door by Monday night. That suggests that if they do have a problem, they are going down the Chelsea route.
"What can we do with the Women's team? Can we find a car park or another building within Aston Villa Football Limited, whichever the reporting entity is - can we find a bit of the business that we effectively sell to another part of the business to get a book profit which gets us over the line in terms of PSR.
"I suspect that we will find out in the coming weeks that they've done something to the Women's team. There's certainly a lot of noise about that happening in the background. My expectation is that we will learn something about that - either minority sale or a sale of the whole thing to another entity within the wider group.
"I think it is [acceptable] now, because once we've gone through two years of permitting the sorts of transactions Chelsea have been permitted to undertake, the sort of player swaps that have been allowed. I think it's fine for Villa to do it, because Chelsea have been allowed to do it.
"On two occasions the clubs have had the opportunity to change the rules, and on two occasions they've decided not to. Once you get to that point, it's perfectly acceptable in my view for Aston Villa to be treated in the same way and use the same rules which Chelsea have used. I think it's fine."
It was explained by Borson how Villa would appear to be the Premier League team most in danger of falling foul of PSR, despite having sold a number of players in the last 12 months - including Moussa Diaby, Douglas Luiz and Jhon Duran.
"The impact for not qualifying for the Champions League is going to come next season," Borson explained. "It isn't going to be in the 24/25 season. The reality is that they gambled in 24/25, and it was a legitimate gamble, because they already had one of the lowest wage bills of the English clubs in the Champions League, or THE lowest.
"They needed to invest in the squad. While the wagebill was lower than most in the Champions League, as a proportion of their revenue, it was very large - I think it was about 85%. It's a very big cost base, so there was not a lot of flex in terms of where else you can generate profit.
"They only had about 15% - you've only taken the wagebill. Clubs have lots of other costs, on top of the wage bill. They've got the cost of running the operation - and then there is the amortisation cost. Bottom line is they took a gamble last season, to invest heavily so they could perform in the Champions League.
"They then doubled down in January, with Rashford - big, big wages and with a total cost of, let's say, £10m minimum. Asensio, Disasi...these players were very expensive gambles in the second half of the season that needed to pay off with a higher league position. They'd have hoped to have finished in the top five.
"That's not to say that they didn't have a good season. They made a lot of money from Europe, maybe £70m before matchday. For Aston Villa, that's a huge amount of their historic turnover. It was successful - but their problem is the cost base is high. They've taken a chance. It may be that they're only £10m over the limit but they've got to find that £10m.
"There are limited options. There are no other levers to pull. If you're Manchester United, you are in a preferable position compared to some teams because they went to Malaysia and Hong Kong, charged them £8m for two games which'll help with PSR. If you're Aston Villa, after the season they've gone through, it's unlikely to be able to do that.
"The number of options Villa have - can we sell a player? Preferably a player with no book value, a young player, or can we sell an asset such as the Women's team? They're a victim of the system as opposed to having done anything wrong. They've been ambitious and it's worked."
adidas Aston Villa range - how to get yours!
Aston Villa have announced that they are selling a new range of fashion items that fans are going to be clamouring to get hold of ahead of the new season - including a limited edition of the iconic adidas Samba range.
The Villa colours are displayed on the trainers and they also show off the Villa badge.
You can also find an adidas DNA hoody which comes in simple Villa colours and a low key traditional adidas design.
The same design can be found on classic adidas track top on offer, this is the type of track top that fans love to wear -
The DNA range continues with a claret and blue t-shirt - , and on the training pants which can also be matched with any of the items -