Aston Villa have made huge progress in generating income from homegrown players in the last five years
Jack Grealish in action for Everton before his season-ending injury
Jack Grealish is currently on loan at Everton (Image: Getty Images)
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Aston Villa’s headaches complying with football’s financial regulations are well-publicised, stuck between trying to progress the club while trying to do so within a set of rules that make that harder than it already is.
Chris Heck’s mantra was ‘revenue, revenue, revenue’ and even with the American gone, the fact remains true, if you can only spend a percentage of what you generate, you better make sure you’re generating more and more.
Sometimes that means turning to the fans and – with a straight face – asking them to shell out more than £90 for a match ticket or several thousands for a posh seat and a nice meal.
Other times it means turning to the football department to realise assets, unfortunately in Villa’s case that has meant cashing in on first team players, or maybe not quite as emotively selling homegrown players yet to make the breakthrough.
Happily for Villa they are not only one of the best in the Premier League at doing that but one of the best in the world.
They have invested heavily in their academy – and recruiting players for their age group teams – and while they are one of 29 Category One set-ups in the country, there are few finer. Or more lucrative.
Indeed according to the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post, over the last ten years Villa have generated €303million from selling players they have produced. That places them third in England, behind Chelsea (€442m) and Manchester City (€404m).
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English clubs ranking in world’s top 100 per €m
Chelsea 442m
Man City 404m
Aston Villa 303m
Man Utd 271m
Arsenal 270m
Tottenham 268m
Liverpool 222m
West Ham 170m
Leicester City 170m
Leeds United 165m
Nottingham Forest 124m
Everton 119m
Southampton 118m
Norwich 106m
Brighton 104m
Fulham 86m
Wolves 85m
Newcastle Utd 73m
Sheffield Utd 72m
Bristol City 71m
Perhaps better than that, Villa are ranked 13th in the world, ahead of the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Juventus and Bayern Munich.
World’s top 100 producing academies per €m
Benfica 589m
Ajax 454m
Chelsea 442m
Olympique Lyonnais 423m
Sporting CP 417m
Man City 404m
Real Madrird 395m
AS Monaco 378m
Palmeiras 356m
Bayer Leverkusen 339m
Stade Rennais 311m
Paris Saint-Germain 306m
Aston Villa 303m
Atalanta 288m
River Plate 285m
Impressively 293m of Villa’s 303m has come in the last five years, with the sale of 13 players. The £100m received for Jack Grealish makes up 38% of the total income.
Training clubs are defined as the first ones where players spent at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21. The sums show include add-ons. Figures are from July 1, 2016.