For Aston Villa, the 2024/25 financials will likely represent a banner year for the club.

While Villa have yet to publish their accounts for 2023/24 we already know that they were compliant with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR), as were all 20 member clubs, and we also know a little about what the 2023/24 finances will look like thanks to the publication of the Deloitte Football Money League last month.

The annual report had Villa's revenue at around £267m a rise of more than 20% year on year. In the report, matchday income is placed at £44.4m, while commercial income appears to have dipped to £36m from £43m. The big rise comes from broadcast revenue, with that figure standing at £181.5m (€214.7). If correct, that would be a rise of 19% compared to the previous year, a bump of £28.9m.

But accounts are just a snapshot of the past, and 2024/25 is the final year which PSR will be used as a financial control by the Premier League, replaced instead with a squad cost ration formula similar to what UEFA has in place for its competitions.

Champions League football for Villa this year, in a season when the competition has expanded and never been more lucrative, has already bagged the club some £60m across prize money, qualification funds and a slice of the broadcast bounty. Add into that an additional five games at home already and that is another £10m.

Jhon Duran was sold for a guaranteed £65m during the January transfer window for a £53m profit, while Diego Carlos’ move to Fenerbahce for £8.5m represented a profit of £2m over and above his book value.

Using the above sums alone, that is £125m in revenue that wasn’t there last year and will be in the 2024/25 accounts. With a likely rise in commercial and Premier League broadcast sums they will likely pass the £400m mark. But to to give a conservative estimate we will use that sum.

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There will be no PSR concerns for Villa, but they may have to do some work on addressing their salary situation.

Villa were busy during the window, adding Donyell Malen for £19.4m from Borussia Dortmund, adding £3.9m to their amortisation costs, but they had also cleared the book value of Duran and Carlos that still existed, which, combined, was above that sum.

But wages was where the big addition came. Villa are on the hook for at least 70% (£227,500) of Marcus Rashford’s reported £325,000 per week contract at Manchester United during his loan spell until the end of the season, with that potentially rising to 90% (£292,500) based on certain conditions. There is also an option to buy at the end of the campaign for £40m.

Based on the 70% mark, that is just under £3m committed in wages between now and the end of the season. If Villa wanted to sign him in the summer on, for example, a five-year deal with a contract of £275,000, then that would be £14.3m in wages per year, as well as an £8m amortisation cost on the balance sheet. Rashford, alone, could end up accounting for around 6% of total revenue at the improved revenue figure. At the 2023/24 figure, that would rise to 8.4%.

This is all purely hypothetical, of course, but with the club also adding Malen’s wages permanently, and Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi’s on loan until the end of the season, the wage bill will spike, and when it comes to the business in the summer, the success of this current financial year will enable that kind of spend, but it will also place greater pressure on revenue levels increasing significantly to support spend in the longer term, and Champions League football again next term is by no means a given, nor is Europa League football.

According to the Money League figures, Villa’s wages stood at £256m for 2023/24. That is 96% of their total revenue for the same period. There was an increase of £62m year on year. That was by far and away the highest wages to revenue figure among the top 20 Money League clubs, with Paris Saint-Germain’s 83% next.

Last summer Premier League clubs voted by majority to bring in a new form of financial control, the squad cost ratio, which would limit clubs to spending 85% of their revenue on transfers, wages, and agent fees.

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Estimated amortisation costs for Villa for 2023/24 are around £108million, add to that the £256million in wages, for example, and that is basing it on the conservative £400m revenue estimate, that would mean Villa’s position would sit at around 91%, a figure that may come down given the likelihood of a very strong financial year.

Clubs will have some time to adjust, but Villa’s high payroll will be something that will need to be addressed in time, either by making it shrink or making other revenue streams grow and spending less on transfer fees that would increase amortisation costs.

Rashford would be a considerable outlay, but he may also provide them with a greater chance of achieving success, and that is the risk and reward.

For now, Villa haven’t a great deal of risk given their use of the loan market, but the summer business will provide some clues as to how they view the coming years under a new financial control.