Kieran Maguire: Jack Grealish paves way for Aston Villa January signing spree
The sale of Jack Grealish has given Aston Villa enough Financial Fair Play flexibility to have a large January transfer budget.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who exclusively told Football Insider that Grealish’s sale to Manchester City has given Villa a ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’.
Villa sold Grealish to City for a fee of £100million in 2021 for what was a record-breaking transfer for the Premier League.
The 28-year-old winger was a Villa academy product so his sale represented pure profit for the club’s Financial Fair Play projections.
As revealed by Football Insider, Villa’s owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris are set to fund a big January blitz for Unai Emery.
The Birmingham-based side currently sit third in the league table and are through to the knockout stage of the Europa Conference League.
Maguire believes Villa are ahead of their projected spending after a very successful start to the 2023/24 season.
“The sale of Jack Grealish has given Aston Villa a get-out-of-jail-free card which has been absolutely fantastic for the club,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“It has given them a degree of flexibility when it comes to their ability to compete in the January transfer window.
“With the excellent form they have shown this season, they are certainly ahead of budget when it comes to their potential final league position that they would have predicted at the start of the season.
“So everything is looking rosy from Villa’s point of view.
“The additional money that has just come in from their partnership with American investors will also help as it will contribute to the £90million allowance in FFP calculations from owner investment.“
In other news, Aston Villa to raise funds for signing blitz by letting stars go