Aston Villa maintain intelligent transfer approach after landing Jack Grealish riches
Once Jaden Philogene completes his move to Ipswich Town, Aston Villa’s profit from the sale of academy graduates will top £100m since selling Jack Grealish to Manchester City for a similarly huge sum.
Villa, like many of top-flight clubs, are restricted by Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and were forced to raise funds by the Premier League's June 30 accounting deadline last year. Douglas Luiz was the main sacrifice after the sales of academy graduates Tim Iroegbunam and Omari Kellyman.
Villa also signed Lewis Dobbin from Everton and Ian Maatsen from Chelsea, who were both academy graduates at their respective former clubs. The sale of homegrown players counts as pure profit, allowing clubs to quickly balance their books.
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Villa didn’t have to make a big first-team sale for three years before last summer because they were largely covered by the sale of Grealish in 2021, allowing them to comply with financial rules over a three-year period.
Villa’s director of football operations, Damian Vidagany, explained at the end of August that it was important for the club to balance their books without selling players which Unai Emery deemed as crucial in his team.
"It’s important to manage the solution of PSR but not take out one of Unai’s most important players for the next season,” Vidagany explained. “So that's the challenge because our responsibility was not only to solve the problem but to build the best team possible for next season.
"To sell Konsa, to sell Bailey … The priority was to solve PSR but we should not compromise the success of the next season. In this moment, there were a few clubs in a weak position, because everybody knows in the Premier League who had this problem with PSR.
"I have to say that, at the same time, some clubs who didn't have the problem tried to take advantage of the situation. This is important because this is a jungle, and everyone looks for his interest. This is normal. We had a problem we had to solve and we tried to solve. In this period, we do some deals. But the key deal that I think it was Douglas Luiz. A great player and very important for us, very important for the fans.
"It's not about just having to sell the players that are providing you profit," Vidagany added. "But at the same time - and this is the most challenging thing – selling the players that Unai can consider that are not crucial for the team. If we sold whatever it took - let's say for instance Ramsey - at that moment some teams approached us offering for him because they knew our weakness. But Ramsey is a player that Unai wants, all Villa staff we love to have him here and we were against this solution."
