The £50m star Aston Villa must consider selling amid PSR concerns

Aston Villa, consider your buzz thoroughly killed. Earlier this week, as Tottenham Hotspur sank to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City that absolutely-categorically-unequivocally had nothing do with preventing Arsenal from winning the Premier League title, Unai Emery’s secured their place in next season’s Champions League at long last. It is quite the achievement for a club who were dangling precariously above the relegation zone when the Spaniard took over in the dugout just 18 months ago.

But despite earning a place at Europe’s top table, Villa still could be in for a lean summer. According to various reports, the club are facing external pressures from the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, and may be forced into selling one or more of their most valued assets in a bid to stay within their financial limits. Current regulations only allow losses of £105 million over a three-year period, and Villa expect to be close to that threshold. Indeed, the Midlands club reported a loss of £119.6 million up to May 2023 - the highest such figure in Europe, according to UEFA.

What’s more, as per The Sun, Villa will not receive any kind of monetary boost from their foray into the Champions League until much later next season. In other words, if they are to steer clear of docked points and slaps on the wrist, then they need to fix their problem themselves.

And one potential solution could involve the sale of midfielder Jacob Ramsey. Straight off the bat, it is worth emphasising that in an ideal world, the 22-year-old would be going nowhere. Highly rated by Emery, the academy graduate has featured 21 times in all competitions for his boyhood club this season, and likely would have played a lot more were it not for a couple of periods of injury absence.

That being said, it is that combination of his obvious talent and his homegrown status that makes him such a viable candidate for a sale this summer. Villa are understood to value Ramsey at around £50 million, and if that price tag were to be met, any incoming transfer fee would represent pure profit given that the England youth international has been on the books at Villa Park since 2007.

And there is also an argument that Ramsey would make for a more palatable departure than several of his teammates. Take Douglas Luiz, for instance, who would probably fetch a comparable fee, but who would leave a much harder vacuum to plug in the centre of the park.

Ramsey is not exactly short on suitors either; the likes of Newcastle United and Tottenham have both been linked with potential raids in recent times, and there is no reason to believe that if he were to become genuinely available, somebody somewhere wouldn’t bite Villa’s hand off for the chance to sign him.

Perhaps, then, as much as it would sting, this is a transfer that Villa should consider sanctioning. It might not be something the club or Ramsey particularly want, but it may also prove to be a necessary evil.