Sources: Aston Villa January signings plan revealed as £98.5m NSWE investment confirmed
The £13.5million worth of shares allotted by Aston Villa owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris is likely to help fund activity in the January transfer window, Football Insider has learned.
A Companies House submission on Wednesday (4 January) shows the share issue backdated to 20 December.
It is the fourth such share issue in the last six months alone, with the total amount pumped into the club in the form of equity in that period adding up to £98.5m.
A financial source has told Football Insider that the cash is almost certainly to help offset operational losses and bankroll activity in the January transfer window.
The Premier League’s Financial Fair Play quota allows clubs to lose up to £105m over a rolling three-year assessment period as long as £90m of that is covered by the owner.
Football Insider revealed in December that Villa are due to post a small profit – the first in the Edens-Sawiris era – when they release their accounts for 2021-22.
However, they lost £68.9m and £99.5m in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns respectively, which would ordinarily see them exceed the league’s FFP limit even with the 2021-22 surplus factored in.
But they are far from the only Premier League team whose losses have reached those depths, and pandemic-related exemptions mean they will not be penalised.
Football Insider broke news last Friday (30 December) that club chiefs are looking for a new sporting director to replace Johan Lange and work closely on transfers with Unai Emery.
This site also revealed the previous Thursday (28 December) that Villa have made Villareal’s 21-year-old Senegalese forward Nicolas Jackson one of their top January targets.
The La Liga side, who won the Europa League under Emery in 2021, have told Villa that they will have to trigger Jackson’s £30m release clause if they want to secure a deal.
Villa also have a “concrete” interest in signing Jackson’s teammate and fellow forward Samuel Chukwueze, 23, in January.
In other news, Gabby Agbonlahor shares verdict on Danny Ings quitting Aston Villa after £30m source reveal.