Keith Wyness reveals new Aston Villa and Newcastle spending solution – ‘This can be done’
Aston Villa and Newcastle could find a way round the incoming Squad Cost Ratio [SCR] rules to invest greater into their squads.
That is according to ex-Everton, Aston Villa, and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, amid SCR replacing Profit and Sustainability Rules [PSR] in the Premier League from next season.
Aston Villa have been told they would not benefit from new SCR rules, despite their latest financial accounts posting club-record revenue.
Newcastle have also remained restricted by PSR rules, and may too be disadvantaged by SCR despite being owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Expert looks at ‘new formula’ to benefit Aston Villa and Newcastle
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – has given his verdict on how Aston Villa and Newcastle could use SCR rules to work in their favour.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness is “convinced” he has found a solution to benefit the two clubs.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “Well, this is something I’ve been looking into quite heavily in this last week again, because we’ve talked about, and many pundits have talked about, this whole idea of the top six like pulling up the drawbridge behind them in terms of how these spending plans are now working.
“And we’ve realigned mainly with the UEFA model, which means that clubs like Aston Villa, Newcastle, et cetera, can’t spend that much to try and break into the top echelon. What I’ve been doing is I’ve been looking at an ability, and a new formula, and I’ve actually done quite a lot of number crunching on this as well as now that there could be a way.
“I know it’s been muted before, but I’ve actually got into it in detail of what I would call the applicable risk spend is what I know we don’t like all these letters and numbers and acronyms, but nevertheless, it is a new one. The applicable risk spend, which to me would be if a Newcastle or an Aston Villa wanted to spend more than their amount that they’re allowed to under the SCR formula, say it was 100 million they wanted to spend, they would have to put in place a bond to do it.
“And I’ve gone through, calculated the cost of the bonds, et cetera, and how it could be done. I’ve also even checked on the risk appetite in the financial markets to put those bonds in place. And it can be done. I’m convinced this can be done. This would give an idea of what it would be in very rough terms.
“If say Villa or Newcastle wanted to spend an extra hundred million beyond their abilities under the SCR, it might cost them about six million to put the bond in place. So when you’re looking at owners like PIF and the wealth of the Aston Villa owners, that should be within reach of them if they decided to go ahead and do that.”
Newcastle limited in January transfer window
Newcastle have had a quiet January transfer window, with the club not having yet made a permanent signing.
Eddie Howe’s side spent around £240million on new signings during the last summer transfer window, which could be affecting their January business.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa signed Tammy Abraham for around £18m, but the club let Donyell Malen leave in order to complete the deal due to financial limitations.