Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has reiterated that Aston Villa remain in need of player sales this month in order to avoid breaching PSR and facing sanctions.
Given the financial rules that have become so prevalent in recent years, Maguire has spoken about Villa at length on a number of occasions already this summer, as we’re under pressure to balance our books and ensure we remain complaint with PSR ahead of June 30.
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There are also UEFA’s SCR regulations to be wary of too as we look to lower our wage bill to adhere to that criteria, and so despite our progression and success domestically and in Europe over the past two years, on and off the pitch, we still face the need to raise revenue through player sales in order to bring down our level of losses.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Maguire insisted that Villa are the ones ‘we are most concerned about’ and that we’ll have to ‘box clever’ if we are to satisfy PSR and press ahead with our plans to strengthen the squad later this summer.
It’s widely accepted that the focus is on selling this month, and the Villa management team will undoubtedly be working tirelessly to ensure we get the best possible deals for those that have to depart.
Our rivals will no doubt be looking to take advantage of the situation, much like last summer before we eventually sold Douglas Luiz to Juventus, and so it’s likely to be a high-stress situation for those involved in making the best decisions possible to ensure we remain competitive moving forward.
One of the key points that Maguire made in this particular interview though is our dangerously high wage bill, and so our top-earners surely have to be looked at as top candidates to potentially move on this summer. Although we’ve qualified for the Europa League and will hope to make further progress domestically next season, that isn’t a sustainable model if we have to keep facing these problems every summer, and so time will tell how that’s reflected in our transfer targets and strategy in the coming weeks and months.
Further, he notes our previous spending over this current three-year period is also a major factor, and although we’ve made big-money sales too such as Jhon Duran over the past year, there is still work for Monchi and his team to do in order to stay on the right side of PSR and get ourselves in a position to strengthen the squad once the June 30 deadline passes.
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