Wayne Veysey

Mon 22 May 2023 7:00, UK

Mateu Alemany made a U-turn on joining Aston Villa because the club plan to curb their transfer spending after this summer, sources have told Football Insider.

The high-flying Midlands club are gearing up for another “huge” summer in which the club are once again expected to smash their transfer record, as revealed by Football Insider on 8 April.

Alemany had agreed to oversee Villa’s recruitment after Barcelona announced that he was to leave his sporting director post at the club at the end of June.

However, despite flying into the UK to complete his move to Villa, Alemany made a U-turn and returned to Barcelona.

Sources have told Football Insider that the transfer expert changed his mind after learning that the English club plan to reduce spending from January 2023 due to financial fair play restrictions.

They have spent massive sums in recent years under billionaire owners Naseef Sawiris and Wes Edens to propel themselves from the Championship to the top half of the Premier League.

Emery was backed in January, as were previous managers Steven Gerrard and Dean Smith, but the Spaniard will then have to rein in his spending.

The long-term plan was enough to put off Alemany, whose association with countryman Emery appeared to be the perfect fit for a club ready to go to the next level after a hugely encouraging six months on the pitch.

Villa posted a £400,000 profit in 2021-22 which was the club’s first since Edens and Sawiris bought the club in 2018, and – astonishingly – the first under any owner there since 2002.

That surplus, which was largely due to the sale of academy product Jack Grealish to Man City for a club-record £100m, followed losses of £99.5m and £68.9m in the previous two financial years, which were both affected by Covid.

In other news, Aston Villa agreement could spark Uefa payout as £300m jackpot on the line