Konsa’s Aston Villa confusion speaks volumes in era of the Premier League PSR conspiracy
“It’s crazy. I don’t understand it myself but from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look too good,” Ezri Konsa said in response to Aston Villa’s restricted transfer business this summer. “I know that and I know it’s really killed us this transfer window. We’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got now.”
But we wonder whether it’s more “crazy” that an Aston Villa player, a senior one at that and by all accounts a smart guy, doesn’t really know why – since Unai Emery took charge of the club in November 2022, across six transfer windows – Villa’s net spend has been positive, with the club making £10.7m more than they have spent.
The Villa fans chanted in harmony with their Newcastle counterparts at Villa Park last month in criticism of the financial regulations which they – not unreasonably – see as the main barrier preventing them from competing with the elite.
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Their view is that the ‘Big Six’ are being protected by the Premier League through rules designed to keep them and other so-called lesser teams from rising up and challenging for major titles.
“There are rules which are pretty much unfair if you ask me,” says Villa captain John McGinn. “We have got owners who want to invest in the team and want to spend to kick the club on, but they are not allowed to do it.”
‘Premier League, corrupt as f***’ was the shared sentiment between those Villa and Newcastle fans, to which Premier League CEO Richard Masters’ response could justifiably be one of confusion as to why UEFA and president Aleksander ÄŒeferin weren’t bearing the brunt of their dissatisfaction courtesy of their far more stringent and limiting regulations.
Villa’s spending has indeed been hindered by the Premier League profit and sustainability rules (PSR), but UEFA’s squad cost rules (SCR), which state that a club can only spend up to 70% of its revenue on player wages, are far more critical to them right now.
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While at the end of last season Tottenham were spending 46% of their revenue on wages, with Manchester United and Arsenal at 51%, Villa’s wages-to-revenue ratio was a whopping 91%, which led to a £9.5m fine in July.
And while the Premier League’s guidelines state that a club can only record losses of £105m over a three-year period, with this set to be Villa’s third successive year in UEFA competition, they will now have to comply with the European governing body’s restriction of £60m. Failure to do so will see them hit by another fine of £12.9m.
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So if Villa and Newcastle fans are indeed convinced there’s a conspiracy against their clubs, they should consider the possibility that it’s a far wider one than they first thought. It’s not the Premier League f***ing them so much as UEFA.
And we wonder if it might be prudent for employees of an organisation, like Konsa at Aston Villa, to be made aware of just why they are f***ed, at which point they can decide whether it’s the damn rules, the questionable decisions of the people paying his wages, or – as is quite clearly the case – a combination of both that’s more to blame. 91%, guys? Really?
