Grealish sale covered Villa's high operating losses

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews the accounts of Aston Villa: https://swissramble.substack.com/p/aston-villa-finances-202122

Aston Villa swung from a pre-tax loss of £37.3m to a small profit of £0.4m, a striking £38m improvement, thanks to profit from player sales surging from just £1m to £97m. This was partially offset by revenue falling £5m (3%) to £178m and operating expenses increasing £50m (22%).

Villa’s £0.4m pre-tax profit is the fourth best financial result to date, only surpassed by Manchester City £42m, West Ham £12m and Liverpool £7m. This is in stark contrast to some other leading clubs, as large losses have been reported by Manchester United £150m, Leicester City £92m,Tottenham £61m, Wolves £46m and Arsenal £45m.

In the previous nine years, Villa’s losses added up to an incredible £421m, including £206m in the three seasons between 2019 and 2021 alone, though this period was obviously hit hard by COVID. In fact, in the 10 years up to 2021, Villa lost more money than any other club in the Premier League, even more than Everton, Fulham, Manchester City and Chelsea.

Villa’s bottom line was obviously massively boosted by £97m profit from player sales, up from just £1m the previous season, thanks to the club record sale of Jack Grealish to Manchester City. This deal essentially covered their high operating losses.  This is the best player trading result to date in the Premier League in 2021/22, ahead of Manchester City £68m and Liverpool £28m. Given that the ability of other clubs to realise profits was hit by the depressed transfer market with budgets impacted by the financial pressures of the pandemic, this was a fantastic result.

Villa’s £137m wage bill was 9th highest in the Premier League, which suggests that the club has under-performed on the pitch. This was almost exactly the same as West Ham, but there was a sizeable gap to the club ahead of them in the wages league, namely Newcastle United £171m.

While Villa continue to rely on the owners’ financial support, the turnaround in the club’s outlook is notable, bearing in mind the awful situation they inherited from Tony Xia in 2018, when Villa were perilously close to entering administration.