Aston Villa's Champions League rivals set for January transfer window blow
Aston Villa's Champions League rivals Newcastle United are unlikely to be able to add to their squad in the January transfer window unless they sell - and that might meaning having to part with current first choice goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.
Villa themselves have had skirmishes previously with PSR, which have limited ambitious football clubs from spending freely when investing in their squad. They were forced into action in June, before the PSR deadline, and sold Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby as a part of their summer business.
Newcastle, who have also secured Champions League football in the last couple of years and who are also a contender to finish in the top four again alongside Villa this season, have been frustrated in their attempts to add to their squad. In the summer they had to sell promising young players Yankuba Minteh to Brighton and Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest just to comply.
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Manager Eddie Howe would undoubtedly like to add to his squad, which has won the last six matches on the spin in all competitions, in order to give it a better chance of achieving what they're aiming for in the second half of the season, but selling before buying remains a likely requirement in the window despite Newcastle's Saudi owners having plenty of cash in the bank.
"The business logic is taking over from the football logic. There may be football decisions you'd like to make," Howe told ChronicleLive, when touching on the potential sale of Dubravka to Saudi Pro League side Al-Shabab.
"Nothing was bigger than the previous summer when we had to lose two highly promising young players - we were forced to, we had no choice. That is very much the business taking over from the football. I think we are still in that position. I'm not on the frontline so I am not speaking to agents and getting interactions.
"Others around the club will have a better understanding than me. I don't think it is taking too many turns from how I thought it would be. That is not to say anything is cut and dry. It might just take one big move somewhere to start a chain reaction. We are ready for anything. We are able to be flexible."
