Ezri Konsa has said that football’s spending regulations “killed” Aston Villa during a difficult summer transfer window. The club, who have started the season badly with one point from three games and no goals scored, were hemmed in by the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules and the equivalent in Uefa competition.
Villa paid out one major fee – £30.5m to Nice for Evann Guessand – and made only four further first-team additions, Marco Bizot being followed in on deadline day by Victor Lindelöf, Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho. The club were open to selling Emiliano Martínez only for there to be no buyer and moved Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for £39m despite Unai Emery preferring to keep him. As a homegrown player, Ramsey counted as pure profit on the books.
Villa have been hurt by their high wages-to-revenue ratio, which stood at 96% in 2023-24 according to Deloitte. Uefa fined the club on 4 July for a breach of its squad cost ratio rules and warned they could face competitive restrictions if they did not have a positive transfer balance by the end of the window. Villa have qualified for this season’s Europa League.
Konsa is preparing with England for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra, which will be played at Villa Park. The tie has his full focus as he seeks to build on his encouraging performances under Thomas Tuchel. But it was not possible to overlook the situation at Villa and how PSR has become such a talking point.
“It is crazy,” Konsa said. “I don’t understand it myself but from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look too good. I know that and I know it’s really killed us this transfer window. We’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got now.
“Everyone knows it’s been a tough start but it’s part of football. We’ve done some recruitment on deadline day so hopefully the boys that have come in can really help us.”
Konsa was asked whether he had followed Monday’s deadline day. “Pffff, no,” he replied. “I definitely didn’t watch that. It’s been tough, especially for us. I knew that signing players was going to be difficult so I did not look at transfer deadline day. Around eight o’clock, I went on Aston Villa Twitter to see what happened and I saw that we’d signed three players, who are really good and have Premier League experience. I think that’s what we needed as well.”
Konsa has made something of a false start on a personal level. He was sent off in the opening fixture against Newcastle, which finished 0-0, and banned for the 1-0 defeat at Brentford. Villa lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace in game three. Tuchel was in attendance for the first two matches.
“Yes, he was there,” Konsa said, with a smile, of the Newcastle game. “I didn’t want to see him but he was outside the [dressing room] door. He was laughing at me. Not 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.
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“I was actually sat next to him at the Brentford game. Was there any small talk? No. He didn’t speak [during play]. He was just focused. We only spoke at half-time. When we were watching the game, he didn’t say one word.”
Konsa has been at Villa since 2019 and he has seen the truly hard times, especially his first season when the club narrowly avoided relegation to the Championship on the final day. He has faith in Emery, who has lifted Villa to finishes of seventh, fourth and sixth since taking over in October 2022. Konsa also has faith in what remains a talented team.
“We want to stay in the top six, top five … we want to play Champions League football,” Konsa said. “I’ve been at Villa at the worst times so I know how bad it can be. We’re not there yet. It’s three games in.”
Konsa also spoke about the responsibility he and his England teammates feel to unite an increasingly fractured nation with their performances. “Definitely,” he said. “We know how much we can bring people together. I saw it last year at the Euros, after the penalties against Switzerland [in the quarter-final win]. As footballers, sometimes you don’t realise how much power we have over people. When we play for our country, the pride and joy we bring to people is amazing.”
