Aston Villa fans will be happy as £200m+ investment shown in accounts – Finance Expert
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive columnist, he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Aston Villa…
Dan Plumley believes that Aston Villa fans will be happy with their latest accounts despite limited profits being posted by the club in 2021/22.
More may have been expected after the sale of Jack Grealish, but only £400,000 profit was recorded after more than £200million was invested in players using most of that money.
It comes after the potentially upsetting news that Randy Lerner was paid £10million due to a previous clause inserted as part of his exit from the club.
“I think this for me goes back to what the objectives are,” he exclusively told Villa News.
“Actually, I think in a way that the fans are upset with the payments to Randy Lerner, I think that most fans would look at that profit line and say that’s pretty much alright. If you look at what they’ve invested, it was over £200million in players, obviously, using some of the Grealish money to do that but that’s what the fans would want – if you sell your best player for a significant fee and the fans would want that reinvested in the transfer market.
“So, Villa have done that and that would stack up with what the fans would want. There has been a little bit of a turnover drop, we know that each position in the Premier League is worth £2million, and I think they finished lower so that accounts for most of that reduction in revenue.
“Other factors, the wages were stable year on year which is positive, and there is £143million of equity in the business on the balance sheet, so when you look at all of that, in football terms, that is quite a healthy set of accounts, they could have generated more profit but to do that, they would have had to not reinvest in the player side of things and there is also the redevelopment of Villa Park coming down the track isn’t there.
“There is the message about the long-term strategic plan and it’s about developing and bringing in talent, investing in young players, investing in sustainability and that is the right message, so turning a profit of £400,000 is good in football terms.”
In other Aston Villa news, the future of this loanee hangs in the balance as contract talks await.