Aston Villa could sell one of three stars for 'big profit' as SCR red flags emerge - expert
Unai Emery has very few players to spare when it comes to balancing the books at Aston Villa this summer.
That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that Ezri Konsa, Boubacar Kamara or Morgan Rogers could be sacrificed.
These sales would be to help battle new UEFA fines related Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) breaches, which have seen a fine of over £19million land at Villa Park.
Borson has already explained to Football Insider that £6.4m of the fine can be paid now, while the rest of it is conditional on Villa meeting their targets.
This would suggest that player sales, or at least one big player sale, could be essential for the Villans' finances this summer if they want to avoid further punishment.
Rogers is already strongly linked with a move to Arsenal, but the England international isn't Emery's only option in the summer market.
Aston Villa stars on the chopping block this summer
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson raised the alarm bells over Villa's financial situation, suggesting an effective, yet frustrating solution.
"They've got some cost-cutting to do, or money that they need to raise for transfers and profits, because that's the other element of how SCR works," he said.
"Now, will it impact them in the transfer market? Yes, I think it overall will impact, because it will impact the amount that they can spend on amortisation, so fifth of the cost of signing the players.
"And there's also the wages. And it will also impact on deciding who goes. All the indicators are that they wanna sell one player, at least one player with a big profit.
"There aren’t that many players that ]fall into that category. You've probably got [Ezri] Konsa, [Boubacar] Kamara or [Morgan] Rogers.
"The rest of them probably don't make huge profits just because of the ages of these players or what they were purchased for."
What is Ezri Konsa's situation at Villa Park?
Borson has already suggested to Football Insider that Konsa could be sacrificed in order to afford a deal for Marcus Rashford, who spent a very successful six months at Villa Park.
The 28-year-old England international has a contract until the summer of 2028, and with that, he is one of Emery's most valuable assets.
Mikel Arteta's Gunners are said to also be interested in the centre-half, but a deal seems unlikely given all of the options already at the Emirates Stadium.
The defender is likely to have multiple suitors if Villa put him up for sale, or if others get a sense of the club's finance issues, it might not be a choice for them to make.