Despite our ongoing progress and development on the pitch, Aston Villa will seemingly continue to face limitations and sacrifices off it in our bid to become an established contender.
The upturn in form since Unai Emery was appointed has been sensational, as we’ve gone from the brink of a relegation battle to qualifying for Europe for three consecutive seasons.
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Further, the management structure both on the sporting and business sides have overseen necessary growth and increase in revenue streams to help fund our push to become a club capable of competing for major honours in the long run, but such is the way that the game is governed, we continue to face difficult decisions.
Time will tell if qualifying for the Champions League again will make a significant enough difference for us to keep hold of our core players and continue to build around them this summer, but the expectation appears to be that we’ll be faced with a similar problem as the one that presented itself this time last year.
According to The Athletic, Villa are likely to need to sell one of our more valuable assets ahead of June 30 to ensure that we’re within the parameters of PSR prior to the Premier League’s financial year coming to an end, and so, just as we had to green light a departure for Douglas Luiz last summer, it remains to be seen who is next to follow that same path.
The Brazilian midfielder wasn’t the only sacrifice either. Moussa Diaby, Jhon Duran, Omari Kellyman, Tim Iroegbunam, Aaron Ramsey and Cameron Archer to name a few have all been let go as part of our ongoing strategy to balance our books and fund our own spending to continue to strengthen and improve Emery’s squad, and yet it doesn’t sound as though our January business earlier this year will be enough come the end of this season.
Coupled with his emotional reaction after our win over Tottenham last week, the signs are seemingly pointing towards Emiliano Martinez being our latest sacrifice, and given he has established himself as a fundamental player in the side and a popular figure with the Villa fanbase, if he is to leave this summer, that will be a hard one to take.
Of course, there is full faith in Emery, Monchi, Damian Vidagany and the entire management and recruitment teams to get it right when it comes to identifying and signing adequate replacements to fill voids, but it’s a challenging strategy that takes a lot of skill, consistency and luck to keep getting right, and so Villa have to reach a point where we hold on to all of our key players and build around them.
Time will tell if that will ever become a reality, but for the more immediate future, it looks as though we’re set to walk a thin line again this year when it comes to getting our finances in order to abide by the limiting and restraining PSR structure for clubs looking to grow and compete with the more established sides, and it remains to be seen if Martinez has to be the latest difficult exit to approve.
Albeit we still have a major objective to compete for this Sunday, those key individuals will no doubt already be busy meticulously plotting their plan and strategy for the upcoming summer transfer window.
