As Aston Villa transfer speculation swirls around, the finance expert weighs in with his verdict on whether the deal could be worth £160m+.
We are pleased to announce our exclusive columnist Dr Daniel Plumley, a football finance expert, who will be discussing the biggest talking points surrounding Aston Villa this season.
Dr Plumley has said that it is difficult to say that Aston Villa made a mistake in the transfer market under manager Clement Lenglet when you look at their Premier League income.
According to a report in The Sun on 16 November, the Frenchman is the most expensive player on the bench at the club, raking in £2.1m without playing a single minute of football.
However, Plumley acknowledged that this is still a very early stage of the investigation, and with an annual turnover of up to £160m, whilst things are looking good on the field, it doesn’t mean much.
“It’s tricky, isn’t it,” he exclusively told Villa News.
“When we look at the narrative around mistakes in the market, it is still quite a short time period that we are covering.
It may have been assumed that he would be given more playing time, as Barcelona have recently stated that they are worried about him. However, this is only a matter of the manager, and Villa have been performing well.
The interesting thing about this figure, if we look at it in relation to the rest of the club’s performance, is that it seems quite high for such a young player who has barely played. However, the club have been performing well on the field, and it is important to remember that each player in the top-tier leagues is worth around £2 million.
So, if the team is performing well on the field and they finish higher in the league than they did last season, even without him, then that would be a net benefit to the club.
It’s very difficult to say at the moment, given how they are currently performing and the fact that Aston Villa’s turnover is between £160m and £180m, and they are currently sitting in the top half of the league.
When looking at it from this angle, it doesn’t seem like such a large expense compared to Aston Villa’s overall revenue profile.
