Frustrated Aston Villa captain John McGinn rails against ‘pretty much unfair’ Premier League rules
John McGinn has spoken out about the farcical financial rules imposed on clubs by the Premier League in the name of profit and sustainability.
Aston Villa captain McGinn spoke exclusively to BirminghamLive reporter John Townley towards the end of the squad’s pre-season mini-tour in the United States and admitted that it will be difficult watching other teams playing in the Champions League after Villa missed out on the final day of the 2024/25 season.
Villa lost to Manchester United after goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was sent off at Old Trafford. Referee Thomas Bramall prematurely blew the whistle to call play dead when Morgan Rogers scored a perfectly legal goal, ruling out any chance of a VAR intervention to correct his over-eager decision.
As it stands, manager Unai Emery will start the 2025/26 season with a similar squad to the one that ended the last campaign, albeit without loanees Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi.
Villa have stood their ground… so far
Martínez hasn’t yet been targeted with any serious intent and Ollie Watkins is not for sale according to reports that ring true with regards to the club’s intentions. There’s no incentive to sell Rogers. Jacob Ramsey might yet be deemed a worthwhile sale but doesn’t appear to be hovering around the exit door just yet.
McGinn himself has had his name dragged through the murky waters of transfer gossip this summer but has unfinished business with Villa and, presumably, a prohibitive asking price.
Villa have been relatively quiet when it comes to making public statements about the artificial limits placed on their spending power.
They seem to be content to work with UEFA to get themselves in line with squad cost ratio restrictions over a period of time and to work within the rules – in black and white if not in spirit – laid out by the Premier League, whose profit and sustainability rules (PSR) cap allowable losses at £105 million over any given three-season period.
PSR is anti-sustainability and it’s going to have competitive consequences
UEFA’s rules make some sort of sense. Football and its clubs can’t be trusted and it’s necessary that financial controls are in place. Squad cost ratio at least broadly reflects a version of one important indicator of the health of the business – a playing wage bill is a threat if it’s too high when compared against revenue.
Fine. It’s not perfect but I get it. PSR is another story.
“We have seen the impact it has now. I don’t know any details about that, but you don’t have to be clever to realise that if you want to compete with the big boys, there are rules which are pretty much unfair if you ask me,” McGinn told BirminghamLive.
“We have got owners who want to invest in the team and want to spend to kick the club on, but they are not allowed to do it. It’s tough to see. The rules are similar for a lot of the clubs.”
McGinn has a point and the overall sense is that these rules are constraining some clubs and not others. You’ll never guess which ones.
Those clubs have to operate within the rules too. It’s quite clear why Liverpool and Chelsea and Manchester United are able to spend like they are this summer. There’s nothing nefarious there; they make money or haven’t spent as much in previous years, or both.
But the chasm between them and other clubs who have the means to spend is a PSR construct.
That’s not to say clubs with wealthy owners like Villa and Newcastle United should be allowed to spend whatever they want but the current state of play doesn’t feel right, does it?
If progress is being stunted by rules, if players are sold against their (and the club’s) will, if women’s teams have to be sold to balance an equation that only exists in its own context, then ‘sustainability’ is a lie.
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