Monchi confirms Arsenal are after striker transfer as Aston Villa hatch PSR plan
Aston Villa transfer chief Monchi has confirmed that the sale of Jhon Duran will bank the club more than £70m once you total the various add-ons attached to the deal. Duran is set to move to Saudi club Al-Nassr on Friday after two years at Villa and he will earn the Lions around four times what they spent to sign him. He himself will quintuple his wages.
Villa will, in the first instance, ensure that they ease the PSR concerns once the Duran sale has been completed; the financial restrictions on football clubs these days are well documented, but Villa have banked tens of millions in the Champions League and have sold the likes of Douglas Luiz, Moussa Diaby and Jaden Philogene in recent windows.
The Duran sale will both set those monetary issues aside and allow Villa to fund viable replacements before the deadline passes on Monday night. Monchi has confirmed that 'a significant amount' of the income will ensure that PSR won't impact Villa.
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"Between fixed and variable amounts, it will be close to 85m euros," he said via AS. "There are a few small details left and for the player it is an incredible economic leap. You are not only a sporting manager, but also a financial manager for a club.
“The first thing we are going to do with the money we receive from the sale of Duran is to keep a portion of it because of the Fair Play rules, which are very demanding. A significant part of the income will go towards that. Then there are names, one of them being Joao Felix."
Monchi also confirmed that Unai Emery wants to bring to an end a long-running pursuit of Marco Asensio by actually clinching his signature - the PSG midfielder has attracted interest, too, from Arsenal this month, but Monchi has reasoned that the Gunners are after a striker - just at a time when they have had a bid for Villa striker Ollie Watkins rejected.
"He [Asensio] is a player that Emery has always had in mind because he believes in his quality," he added. "Arsenal? I think they are more looking for a striker, because of the injuries they have had. What I do know is that Asensio is not playing.”
