Danny Mills has warned Aston Villa that it can go financially wrong for them ‘very, very quickly’ if they drop into the Championship, as he used the likes of Leeds and Sunderland as examples, whilst speaking to Sky Sports News (21/07/20 at 11:40 am).
Whilst Leeds earned promotion to the Premier League on Friday, Villa may well be swapping divisions with the Yorkshire club by the end of today.
Over the years, the likes of Leeds and Sunderland have dropped down to the third-tier – with the latter still in League One.
Former England right-back, Mills, shared the troubles that may face Villa if they are relegated and warned how the financial side of the game can hit them like a ton of bricks.
“It’s not just about the transfer fees,” Mills told Sky Sports. “It’s the sheer size of wages in the Premier League and Villa had a huge wage bill when they were in the Championship. That’s not got smaller now that they are in the Premier League.
“Now, if you drop out of that, financially, the owner has to dip into his pocket. Newcastle were able to do that because nobody was prepared to pay for their players because they were on such big wages. Of course, they bounced back immediately, which we know is so, so difficult.
“You do have to fear [for Aston Villa if they are relegated] because those players who were worth £20 million at the start of the season. If you get relegated then other Premier League clubs will go ‘we know you are a little bit desperate and you want to get these players off the wage bill and we’ll give you £10 million’.
“And then you go find yourself in all sorts of dire trouble like Sunderland have done. Like Leeds have done in the past. Like Southampton when they fell through the divisions. So, you have to be very, very careful if you drop out of the Premier League. If you have overspent, and spent big to get there and failed, it can go wrong, financially, very, very quickly.”
Whilst Villa’s wages are perhaps high for the Championship, you would expect that there are clauses in players contracts, so there would be that safety barrier if they were to be relegated.
Plus, the players Villa bought over the summer weren’t big-name players, nor big-money signings from an individual perspective, so there could be the real possibility that compared with Premier League players the current Villa crop aren’t on high wages.
Then there’s Jack Grealish, who is a big asset for the club and would demand a massive fee if the club returns to the second-tier, so Villa would be helped in that regard also. Not forgetting they have strong backing from their current owners.
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