Ezri Konsa admits he does not really understand the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, but he knows they have hit Aston Villa hard this summer.
Villa missed out on qualification for the Champions League on the final day of last season after a controversial decision to disallow a crucial Morgan Rogers goal at Old Trafford. The consequence was a huge drop-off in expected revenues this season and the need for some savvy moves in the market to keep up with the richest clubs in the Premier League, who bring in significantly more income and can therefore spend more in the transfer market.
The club sold academy product Jacob Ramsey for £39m to Newcastle in order to book some profit in the accounts, and were largely passive in the market. Villa signed Nice striker Evann Guessand for £23.5m but he was their only major transfer before deadline day.
“It is crazy,” Konsa said on the impact of PSR on the transfer market. “I don’t understand it myself but from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look too good. I know it’s really killed us this transfer window. We’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got now.”
Villa did manage to add two more recruits before on the deadline, bringing in Harvey Elliott from Liverpool on a loan with an agreed fee of £35m, and Jadon Sancho on loan from Manchester United, to bolster Unai Emery’s attacking options.
“We’ve a great squad, I believe in our squad,” said Konsa. “I believe in our manager. Hopefully the boys who have come in can really help us and push us on.”
Konsa was speaking at St George’s Park where he has linked up with the England squad ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia.
It is a welcome break from a tough start to the season at Villa, who have only one point from their first three games. England manager Thomas Tuchel was at the first of those three to see Konsa sent off against Newcastle.
“I didn’t want to see him but he was outside the [changing room] door after the game,” smiled Konsa. “He was laughing at me. I’ve not got much to say about that! I got red-carded but he was very helpful, very understanding. It was a boring game anyway! He didn’t think anything of it.”
England will be expected to thrash lowly Andorra on Saturday, but Konsa warned that it will not be so straightforward after their last meeting ended in a tight 1-0 victory for the Three Lions.
“Everyone that plays England, they are always up for it. They always give it their best. But I think playing teams like Andorra, it’s really tough to play, they play a really low block and obviously we’re going to have the majority of the ball so for us, games like that, you have to stay patient.
“I know sometimes the crowd can get frustrated with us but for us it’s all about focusing on the gameplan, trying to break them down. We’ve got great players up there that can break a lot of top teams down. For us, especially with me as a centre-half, we’ll just like to it to the front players and let them do their work. Hopefully that works on Saturday.”
