Aston Villa duo Ezri Konsa and Matty Cash have revealed their frustration over financial sustainability rules which hampered the club this summer, but both still believe there’s enough in our squad to compete.
Although Villa were eventually able to make five new signings in the window with Marco Bizot, Evann Guessand, Victor Lindelof, Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott arriving to bolster the squad, we also sold Jacob Ramsey and continue to have to sacrifice players in order to balance the books and ensure we adhere to financial regulations.
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Those are twofold for Villa with the Premier League’s PSR as well as UEFA’s SCR and Football Earnings rules which, in order to comply with, require player sales to reduce losses and manage the wage bill, and so the club have continued to face significant restrictions on our ambition to continue to build on our progress and success on the pitch.
That’s not lost on the players who will be aware of the situation, and although both Konsa and Cash concede that it has been frustrating to see it play out as it’s questionable as to whether the squad is stronger now than it was when we started the summer transfer window, they were also both keen to insist that the group is focused on the challenge ahead and we’ve got a tight-knit squad that is still capable of achieving our objectives this season.
“It’s crazy,” Konsa said, as per the Daily Mail. “I don’t understand it myself but from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look too good. I know that. I know it’s really killed us this transfer window. We’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got now. Like I say, we’ve a great squad, I believe in our squad. I believe in our manager. Hopefully the boys who have come in can really help us and push us on.
“I knew that signing players was going to be difficult so I did not look at transfer deadline day. Later on, around 8 o’clock I went on Aston Villa Twitter to see what happened. I saw that we signed three players, who are really good and have Premier League experience. I think that’s what we needed as well.
“We want to stay up there. We want to stay in the top six, top five and the aim for everyone is that we want to play Champions League football. That’s what we’re going to try to do. I’ve been at Villa for seven years, I’ve been there at its worst times so I know how bad it can be. But look, we’re not there yet. It’s three games in.”
Villa’s poor form to start the new season has exacerbated that frustration, but the international break has arguably come at a perfect time to allow the team to regroup and start afresh, with the new signings also having time to settle in and adapt to Emery’s demands ahead of our trip to Everton on September 13.
Cash, who was linked with a move away this summer, insists that he’s happy at Villa and although he is frustrated by the fact that our owners can’t invest and spend how they want to due to the limitations put on them by the financial rules, there is still a strong squad at Emery’s disposal which can continue to build on what they’ve done up to this point.
That will undoubtedly become more difficult as rival clubs in the Premier League continue to spend big on their own reinforcements, but it’s hoped that we can quickly turn our form around after the break and start to climb the table, while also remaining competitive across the Europa League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup this season.
“I love the club, I’m really settled in Birmingham,” Cash told the PA, as per the Independent. “I love playing for Villa. I love playing under Unai and as I said, hopefully for many years I can keep doing that.
“The PSR and stuff, it’s frustrating because obviously the owners have got money that they want to spend and do what’s best for the club, and obviously we’ve got limits and we can’t do it. But obviously we’ve had good success with the squad that we’ve got now in. So as players, you can’t really get too drawn into it. You just have to focus on your job.
“We’re the ones that are out there on the pitch. Our jobs as players, we get paid to perform on the pitch, and that’s all we can do. We’ve got a good, strong group. We’re very close together as a team. So it’s important to have that “We’ve done well because I think the squad has togetherness and in tough times like this obviously you need to stick together.
“You need to be a group and a squad, and I think we’ve done that. The rules are the rules, and you have to just get on with it and try and do well.”
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