TL;DR

This piece was intended for publication in the close season, but following the reporting of Andrea Traverso's (UEFA Executive Director, Financial Sustainability and Research) shambolic 15-minute diatribe on February 26th, it really couldn't wait.

Gone is the effervescent, rarely wrong, and inspirational figure in black. Now Unai is cutting a dejected profile on the sideline, focusing on things he cannot fix, whilst hoping for a miracle to repair those he can. To underline the current travails, Emery was on the cusp of a rare 100th win as Villa boss; now he is on the cusp of a 50th defeat, with few expecting the former to come first. Time and circumstance have taken their toll.

It's only really in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds of the FA Cup that All Premier League Ties become a thing. After that, you'll inevitably face strong opposition if you get there, that is, unless you're Manchester City. But it's the prevalence of Villa's draws against Premier League clubs in those early rounds that boggles the mind and sets conspiracy theories racing.

"The contenders for the title [with Arsenal] should be Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Newcastle, Man United, Liverpool. Why? Find the information."

Maguire and his band of social media muppets will need something else to bore on about as the Deloitte Football Money League for 2026 is published and Villa are apparently no longer the unsustainable, profligate, wage expenders they once were.

Is it transfer window time? Want to showcase your lack of support for Villa but don't know how to? Follow these simple steps, and you too can become a Social-Media-Super-Fan and rule the window.

With Rooney ruling himself out with a pulled-down baseball cap, a pork pie and a can of Stella, United are reportedly looking elsewhere for their saviour, but seriously, would you want any of them even taking care of your wheelie bin? Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Ole Gunnar Solskjær…. Anfield had the Boot Room; Christ knows what you’d call United’s equivalent. Suffice to say, Rooney, tired and emotional in his camping chair, would do a better job than those three.

Since 2019-20 Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal have spent an average of €1.4bn on players. Over the same period, the remainder of the participants in the Premier League have averaged a total outlay of €537m. One club, Chelsea, has a spend in excess of €2bn, four other clubs, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have a spend in excess of €1bn. One rule for them you say... hold my beer say the Premier League.

In August 2025, the Premier League fined Villa £125,000 for breaching multiball rules in five matches in 2024-25. Villa are also prohibited from operating the multiball system in its first three home league matches of 2025-26. The Premier League accuse Aston Villa’s ball boys of acting “deliberately and under instruction... with no other reason than to attempt to affect passages of play for the benefit of the Club.”

Villa look like they will be just below the PSR threshold for the three year period to 2024-25. They could even be as much as £10m to £20m below the PSR threshold if gate receipts and commerical income perform as well as has been suggested. Whatever the final outcome we know 2022-23's mammoth £120m loss is falling away and record revenues are still being delivered ahead of a third successive season in Europe.

SCR requires the club to collect, hold and disclose a granularity of data that would ordinarily be an input into rather than a published output under general accounting rules.



Premier League Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR) Explained