Stefan Borson: Aston Villa are facing 'Enormous' problem after £252m reveal
01/26/2025 04:00 PM
Aston Villa are facing an "enormous" problem from an operating perspective following a dramatic rise in their wage bill last season.
That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the West Midlands giants' salary expenditure now takes up almost all of their revenue.
Deloitte's 2025 Money League revealed Villa's revenue surged from £218million in 2022-23 to a new club-record figure of £265million last season.
But their wage bill also increased from £194million to £252million after qualifying for the Champions League in 2023-24.
Unai Emery's side were believed to be close to the profit and sustainability (PSR) limit last season, with top-flight clubs only permitted to lose £105million over a rolling three-year period.
Douglas Luiz, Tim Iroegbunam and Omari Kellyman were all sold ahead of the 30 June accounting deadline to ensure the club didn't break the spending rules.
Aston Villa increased their wage bill to secure Champions League
Borson insisted it's difficult to break into the Champions League with a wage bill under £250million.
He told Football Insider: "It's a problem that all clubs have got when they are trying to break from historical careful management of the wage bill into the Champions League.
"If you want to break into the Champions League, to do it with a wage bill of less than £250million is really hard in the Premier League, so they decided to invest.
"I guess when you also add on the bonuses that probably would have been included for qualifying, taken together that took them to £252million.
"The problem is, that's almost all of their revenue.
"When you look at it like that, you have got an enormous problem from an operating perspective, and that's also not sustainable.
"What they did as we know is they sold a number of players before the 30 June to generate the profit necessary to fill that gap.
"You can't keep doing that and the problem compounds over time."
In other news, Aston Villa plot late move to sign Besiktas forward Semih Kilicsoy.
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The post Stefan Borson: Aston Villa are facing 'Enormous' problem after £252m reveal appeared first on Football Insider.
