Aston Villa’s Director of Football operations, Damian Vidagany, has explained and passionately criticised current PSR rules as they continue to limit our ambition.
Villa secured qualification for the Champions League this season after a superb campaign last year in which we finished in fourth place in the Premier League.
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Despite that achievement though, we’ve seen key sales of Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby to help balance our books and fund new signings, while Academy products continue to be sold, with Omari Kellyman and Tim Iroegbunam the latest to depart this summer.
The expectation currently is that Villa must sell first before we can continue to bring in reinforcements for Unai Emery between now and the end of the transfer window, and Vidagany did a brilliant job of explaining the situation, and pointing out where it simply isn’t working for clubs like us trying to break through and compete at the top level.
“Absolutely [PSR makes it more difficult],” he told talkSPORT. “Clubs need some rules to stick to, but PSR is making it very complex. The system is forcing the clubs to sell their Academy players, this is the way to get more profit and be able to stick to the rules, and I think this is killing some of the spirit of football.
“It’s something that is not natural in football, something that is breaking the cycle, affecting the inflation of the salary of the players, how the club want to build squads and also forcing clubs to do deals that are not natural in the market. To get the best deals you need time, and PSR is not helping the clubs.
“We, as a club, have the ambition to get there, amongst the best, I don’t like the concept of top six, to get there is very difficult because the clubs who have more resources it’s easier to stick to PSR, it’s like an establishment that we’re trying to break but the system is not allowing us to do it.
“We’re lucky to have one of the best managers in the world that is helping to break this wall we have in front.
“Important that the fans must know, that there is another PSR, UEFA’s SCR. Completely different to PSR. It’s like trying to do two puzzles, it’s very difficult.
“We sold Douglas Luiz, an important player, because the club needs a sale to stick to PSR. Douglas Luiz gave us a lot of profit. Moussa Diaby is not giving us a lot of profit for PSR, but his sale helped us to reduce the cost for SCR of UEFA.
“When you’re competing in Europe, you also have to stick to the rules of UEFA, that are completely different. We need to combine decisions for both, and it’s extremely difficult. We need to stick to both rules because we know we could have a points deduction. It’s not like Football Manager where you can just choose the players.
“I think the clubs have decided to change PSR for SCR in the next two years, but we still have one year with PSR. I’m not saying the original idea was bad, they believed it was the right system. But the business is talking to you, that we’re going in the wrong direction.
“When the system forces you to sell Academy players, the most pure player and beautiful spirit of the game, to have the fans sing in the stadium, this song is going to disappear. You need Academy players in your squad for UEFA, but if you sell them, you have to put players in the squad that are not at that level. Football needs a reset and then combine European and Premier League with more common sense.”
It was an excellent interview from the Villa chief, as he calmly and methodical explained and criticised the current rules, as although they perhaps addressed the initial concerns for which they were created for, it has had a damaging and negative knock-on effect for so many other reasons.
The fact that we, and other clubs in a similar position, have had to sell fundamental players and top prospects despite becoming more competitive against the more established clubs, has led to frustration and anger over how the system is working currently.
Importantly though, through all the negativity that it has created, Vidagany, as well as Monchi and Unai Emery, were all a great listen in their interviews, as they helped us understand the difficulty and complexity of the issues that they’ve had to navigate through, especially this summer.
What is clear is that we’re certainly not being reckless, every move is strategically thought out and difficult decisions will be made when necessary for the good of the club with the aim of making the squad as strong as possible within the current system and rules, while we also try to strengthen our financial position off the pitch.
Further, they’re not always going to be able to make the most popular decisions and please everyone, but it has never been clearer that we have a solid, trustworthy and professional hierarchy in place doing the best job possible, and in the best interests of the club.