Has the PSR weakened Aston Villa?

Aston Villa had a sensational season last year, securing UEFA Champions League qualification along with winning the UEFA Europa League. However, their start to the 2026/27 season has been a nightmare as they were drubbed 4-0 by Brighton and Hove Albion. It wasn’t just the manner of the loss but also an issue with their starting 11 that looked relatively weaker than many of the European giants with whom they will compete in the Champions League this season. 

So, what could be the reason for this sudden downfall for Unai Emery’s men who performed exceptionally well last season? A lot of it could be attributed to the unfair rules laid down by the Premier League – the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). 

Here we look at what PSR is and the factors that have affected Aston Villa this summer, followed by conclusion. 

What is PSR?

The Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) have been designed by the Premier League to restrict Premier League clubs’ spending and stop them from losing money. 

The PSR works in the following way – 

• All Premier League clubs are judged financially over a three-year rolling period.

• No Premier League club can show losses of more than £105 million over the said three-year period or £39 million if the club has spent any of the previous seasons outside of the Premier League.

• This means that a club can average losses of £35 million or £13 million (if recently promoted) per year or more but they would then need to balance the losses in the next two years.

• Expenses that contribute towards loss value include transfer fees, players’ wages and manager pay-outs. Any investments made towards infrastructure development, women’s team and academy are not included in losses.

• As for revenue earned, TV broadcast money, matchday revenue and sponsorship deals are included along with profit on player sales. However, PSR rules mean that clubs record profits by taking the fee they sold the player for and subtracting the player’s book value. Book value refers to the portion of the transfer fee that hasn’t been accounted for on their books. The book value reduces every year due to amortisation. (The way clubs spread a player’s transfer fee over the course of their entire contract).

We can give an example here to explain the above point in relation to profit on player sales according to PSR. Let’s say, a club bought a player for 100 million on a five-year contract. His fee is amortised into 20 mil per year over the five-year period. Then his book value in the third year of his contract would be 40 mil. So, if the club sells him for 60 mil, the profit on player sales will be 60 mil – 40 mil = 20 million and not counted as a loss since he was bought for 100 mil. 

There were several loopholes regarding profit on player sales and Associated Party Transactions (APT’s) that Premier League clubs were exploiting, hence Premier League decided to make changes for the 2026/27 season. These changes have been made in collaboration with all the stakeholders including representatives from all Premier League clubs. 

A new system called the Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) has been introduced. This focuses on revenue, rather than loss, and restricts the clubs to spending 85 percent of their revenue on football costs. 

P.S. For more information on SCR, please refer to the below link – 

Factors affecting Aston Villa

Forced to sell players 

Due to PSR, Aston Villa have had to sell players to comply with the financial limits. Several high profile and key players like Jhon Duran, Leon Bailey, Douglas Luiz, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Ezri Konsa have been sold to recover losses.  

Aston Villa submitted a pre-tax loss of £82 mil to UEFA after the 2024/2025 season. They also showed losses of £120.3 mil in 2024 and £85.9 mil in 2023. This took Villa’s losses to about £290m over the three-year rolling period and hence they have been forced to sell players to recover the losses and stay compliant to PSR. 

Villa had raised just over £200 million with the sales of Jhon Duran (£71m), Douglas Luiz (£42.5m), Jacob Ramsey (£40m), Moussa Diaby (£50m) last year. 

This season they have sold Morgan Rogers (£120m), Youri Tielemans (£35m), Lucas Digne (£6m), Enzo Barranechea (£10m), Donyell Malen (£21.6m), Ezri Konsa (£51m) and Lewis Dobbin (£9m) so far.  Some other players have also departed on loan and there are rumours around Ollie Watkins also moving to a Saudi Pro League club before the end of the window. 

UEFA fines for breaches and transfer window restrictions 

Aston Villa have already been fined twice by UEFA for breaches, they were hit with a £9.5m sanction last year and a £19.4m fine in June, although some amount from that (£12.9m) was suspended after Villa came to a settlement with UEFA. 

These fines have further restricted their dealings in the transfer market. Also, Villa have to stay cautious because further breaches could be fatal as they could lead to higher fines and even transfer bans. 

Even after selling key players for big money, Villa is still unable to buy quality players due to a combination of PSR and the new SCR rules and have to spend within their means to rebuild their squad after a mass exodus. 

Impact on Squad Depth 

After having won the Europa League last season and qualified for the UEFA Champions League, Villa fans might have been positive that their club could improve squad depth and compete for more silverware this season. However, the reality has been entirely different. Limited by PSR and now the SCR, Aston Villa have had to sell too many key players from last season’s squad and since their hands are tied, they can’t even replace the outgoing players well. 

Although Villa has signed new players in Johan Manzambi, Alejandro Garnacho, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Zion Suzuki, Matteo Ruggeri and João Gomes so far, these players don’t really possess the quality of the departing players. So many outgoing players has weakened not only the starting eleven but also impacted their squad depth. 

Conclusion

While the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) was designed to help the Premier League clubs and keep the competition fair, there has been enough evidence that they seem to favour the top clubs and upcoming mid-table clubs like Aston Villa suffer due to various reasons. In comparison to the top clubs that have global fanbases hence higher matchday revenues, TV broadcast money and exorbitant sponsorship deals, the mid-table clubs with a smaller fanbase and less sponsorship deals and broadcast revenue face limitations in spending big in the short-term. While the big clubs can spend big on transfer fees and player wages, the smaller clubs cannot spend massively on transfer fees and wages for building a quality squad, unless they sell key players for massive transfer fees. 

We are witnessing the same with Aston Villa who have been slapped with breaches and fines, they had to sell most of their crucial and top-quality players over the past two seasons to manage the losses and comply with PSR. This season has been particularly brutal as most of their core Europa League winning squad has gone, leaving them with a relatively weakened playing 11 as well as a squad that doesn’t look good enough to compete with the big boys in Europe or even in the Premier League. 

Although it’s still early days and Villa are still trying to recruit within their means, there’s no doubt that Unai Emery has a massive job on his hands to go again, rebuild and guide a team through transition for the 2026/27 season and beyond. PSR has certainly affected Aston Villa adversely and it remains to be seen if the new SCR rules would be fair to all clubs, restore balance and ensure that all clubs big or small, can compete well  and make the Premier League the most exciting league in the world.