Yahoo News 'Stupid, unnecessary, protectionist' Aston Villa verdict as summer transfer plans take shape
The Premier League have been castigated for their attitude to Aston Villa and the “bargain basement” restrictions of top-flight player spending rules.
Villa are on the crest of a wave after a fourth-placed finish last term and the promise of Champions League football to come - already worth in excess of £100m and with the promise of bonuses to come.
Yet the Villa Park hierarchy are planning for a summer of big-name sales as they remould Unai Emery’s squad to comply with stringent Profitability and Sustainability regulations while also trying to strengthen his hand for a tough 2024/25 campaign at home and abroad.
Award-winning Times columnist Martin Samuel has now leapt to Villa’s defence, slamming what he describes as “stupid, unnecessary, protectionist regulations”.
READ MORE: Jack Grealish thanks Aston Villa for Man City 'favour'
READ MORE: Villa and Celtic face summer tussle for 'next Didier Drogba'
He writes in his latest column: “Villa have been champions of Europe yet have never been as financially robust. So, naturally, they celebrated in the manner of all modern Premier League clubs. They went scouting in the bargain basement and discussed which players they could sell to avoid being docked points.
“It’s a brave new world, all right. Only in the Richard Masters Premier League era would a club such as Villa enjoy comparatively fabulous success, while being made to act as though they are on the brink of ruin. Villa have never had it so good. So why does the Premier League insist on making its clubs look bad?”
It is a question many a Villa fan will have been asking as speculation about the club’s summer transfer business has emerged. Talk is Diego Carlos is available to rival clubs, as is home-grown youngster Jacob Ramsey. Meanwhile, the likes of “dirt cheap” Ross Barkley is a likely recruit as Emery and Co make their top-flight sums add up.
Samuel adds: “Ramsey’s sale could be huge. Villa don’t want to sell him and one imagines that Ramsey doesn’t want to go because this is his boyhood club, but what we know about homegrown talent is that, in terms of PSR, youth is worth more off the books than in the squad, so Ramsey’s sale would represent pure PSR profit.
“Barkley, who is 30 and will be dirt cheap after Luton Town’s relegation, is a good player but Villa should be adding to the numbers, not plugging gaps.”
Samuel claims the Premier League approach could ultimately have wider ramifications than just the often repeated claim that its tough spending rules merely protect the established elite while stopping others from challenging their supremacy.
He explained: “The ramifications of these stupid, unnecessary, protectionist regulations are already being felt. The Premier League behaves as though the only consequence of stringent PSR regulations is healthy balance sheets and happy shareholders, but that isn’t true. An industry, a business, starved of growth ultimately suffers.
“At the very point when Villa are in a position to flourish they are made to behave without ambition or imagination. And if, as a result, they fall short in the Champions League - as they did in the Conference League this season - then this potentially has an impact on England’s coefficient ranking, and the additional place, and slowly the influence and appeal of the Premier League depreciates.”
