Aston Villa PSR latest: Stefan Borson reacts after club-record wage reveal
Aston Villa sold forward Jhon Duran to Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr to resolve their profit and sustainability (PSR) issues.
That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the West Midlands giants would have been tight on PSR for this season before sanctioning the Colombia international’s move.
Duran, who joined Villa from Chicago Fire for £18million in January 2023, made the switch to Al-Nassr in a deal worth more than £64million last week.
Unai Emery’s side signed Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi on loan before the window closed on Monday (3 February).
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 to take them close to the PSR limit, with top-flight clubs only permitted to lose £105million over a rolling three-year period.
Aston Villa made significant profit on Jhon Duran sale
Borson insisted Villa would likely have waited to sell Duran in the summer had they not had a PSR issue again this season.
He told Football Insider: “I think it must be linked to their PSR situation because, ordinarily, given they are through in the Champions League, you would say he’s clearly got value.
“Clearly, he wanted to move. We know he wanted to move for ages, but you just wait until the summer because he’s so young. It’s not like a burning platform.
“It’s likely you would get a better offer in the summer, so I think you would only sell him now if you had a level of concern about PSR.
“We know from the Deloitte Money League that, for last year, they had a 96 per cent wage-to-revenue ratio. Clearly, when you have got that situation, it’s very difficult to bridge PSR.
“In some ways, 2024-25 will actually be more challenging because what happens is the season that drops out is the Jack Grealish sale season.
“Of course, the Grealish sale was £100million profit because he was a youth player, so they have got a fairly tight window.
“I think Swiss Ramble estimated that they could only afford to lose £17million pre-tax to remain compliant.
“That number might actually be even worse because he usually models quite conservatively, and now we have got the numbers come through, it will be very tight.
“But I suspect the Duran deal will fix the PSR problem, although they do have sell-ons and they didn’t pay an insignificant fee when they bought him.
“But there is a good chunky profit there for them.”
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