Aston Villa could be forced to sell stars after ‘£290m’ reveal – Stefan Borson
Aston Villa strengthened their squad significantly in the January transfer window with five new signings at Villa Park.
The West Midlands giants secured loan deals for Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi before the window slammed shut, while Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia joined on a permanent basis.
Finance expert Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Villa decided to gamble in the market as they look to progress in the Champions League and finish as high up the Premier League table as possible.
Aston Villa wages to increase after record-breaking reveal
Borson revealed the club’s wage bill has now likely increased to around £290million for this season.
Deloitte’s 2025 Money League showed Villa’s revenue reached a new club-record figure of £265million last season, while their wage bill also increased to £252million.
Unai Emery’s side were believed to be close to the profit and sustainability (PSR) limit for 2023-24, with top-flight clubs only permitted to lose £105million over a rolling three-year period.
Borson insisted Villa will likely have to sell players again in June this year to avoid breaching the spending rules.
He told Football Insider: “It looks to me as though Villa are taking some calculated risks compared to some of the other teams who have been more cautious, Newcastle in particular.
“That points to them being very close on PSR.
“Villa are thinking ‘We have got Champions League in the second half of the season and the possibility of finishing fifth, so we can potentially gamble’.
“I think it’s going to be very hard to see how they don’t have to sell players in June again.
“The wage bill is slightly misleading with this 96 per cent that we heard about because it’s a 13-month wage bill.
“If you do the maths on it and scale it back to just 12 months, it’s probably nearer 90 per cent, but that is still a very high wage bill for the 12 months to 30 June.
“I think they have probably added at least another £40million on top, so we are probably looking at a wage bill for this current season of something like £290million.
“That is still relatively low compared to Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal.”
Aston Villa set for £11m hit after done deals
Football Insider revealed on 5 February Villa have added more than £11million to their wage bill following their late deals for Rashford, Asensio and Disasi.
In terms of outgoings last month, Jhon Duran completed his initial £64million move to Al-Nassr, while Jaden Philogene joined Ipswich Town for £20million and Diego Carlos headed to Fenerbahce in a £10million deal.
Emery’s side currently sit eighth in the Premier League table and are into the last 16 of the Champions League following their strong performances in Europe.
Borson previously told Football Insider Villa are set to generate around £70million in prize money this season.
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