Aston Villa's need to win. Now

New York Times

17-02-2025

Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train echoed around Villa Park before kick-off.
It is a staple of Aston Villa's pre-match build-up and, as Aston's favourite son, the sound of Osbourne is a reminder of the club's roots.
This week, Osbourne's band, Black Sabbath, confirmed their final ever gig (Ozzy is now 76!) will be at Villa Park in July. It will be the third concert the stadium hosts this summer, following Guns N' Roses and Kendrick Lamar, signalling another play to make the place an established music venue during football's off-season.
Advertisement
Each show will be revenue boosting, which is fundamentally at the heart of everything Villa do off the pitch.
Manager Unai Emery, for that reason, is the key revenue driver, unlocking Champions League riches this season and making Villa an increasingly appealing club.
Villa can afford to charge as much as £92 ($115.8m) per ticket for a home game against Brighton & Hove Albion (fine opponents, but not exactly Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United), or £70 as the cheapest seat for a fixture in the Champions League. They withstand external anger over pricing by quantifying the demand of supporters wanting to watch Emery's team.
Through Emery's coaching acumen, every component of the club has received a boost since he was appointed in October 2022. He has the keys to the castle, equipping him with the environment he desires.
Villa's recruitment is manager-led, with president of football operations Monchi and Damian Vidagany, director of football operations, tasked with placating him while ensuring the deals that get done can be accounted for on the balance sheet.
In the recently-closed winter transfer window, Emery wanted Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio. He got both, albeit on loan, with Villa covering all of Asensio's Paris Saint-Germain salary and, provided performance-related payments are met, up to 90 per cent of Rashford's Manchester United wage, which stands at over £325,000 a week. They are high-profile players of rich pedigree and Emery has an outstanding track record for maximising attacking talent.
Last season, plans to redevelop Villa Park were shelved. Frankly, the 42,000-capacity ground is now too small and outdated to push revenues closer to comparable teams in the Premier League table.
Villa's inclusion in the Deloitte Football Money League's top 20 richest teams was caveated by qualifying for this season's Champions League, with the broadcast revenue received a critical and telling contributor. In other areas, their revenue streams underline the gap — for example, Villa brought in €43m in commercial revenue, a figure dwarfed by Newcastle United (€89.7m) and West Ham United (€75.7m), neither of whom played in Europe at all this season.
Advertisement
Emery and other decision-makers concurred that redeveloping the stadium — which entailed the North Stand being knocked down — would have been an eyesore in a Champions League campaign. Fearing a three-stand stadium would remove home advantage and, from a financial perspective, lose the club money in the short term, the can was kicked down the road.
By focusing on the present, Villa have gone all-in on being successful right now. And provided they are, things should look after themselves in the long term.
The Asensio and Rashford acquisitions were eye-catching. Not only from a profile and pedigree perspective, but in terms of adding further burdens to a wage bill that was already teetering on the edge. Although Diego Carlos and Jhon Duran left permanently in that same window for combined fees of about £72million, the financial load was put back on, and increased, with Rashford and Asensio arriving.
A staggering 96 per cent of the club's turnover was spent on wages last season. For comparison, the next highest in the world's top 20 teams for generating revenue were Chelsea, at 72 per cent.
With Villa having three expensive loanees — which includes a £5million fee for borrowing Chelsea's Axel Disasi until the end of the season — there is little in the way of recovering money. Should each of the three fulfil their promise, Villa will likely be propelled into the Champions League again for 2025-26, guaranteeing another year of big revenues and helping to break through another profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) ceiling.
That perceived risk is allayed by Emery's triumphs so far at the club and how he has extracted every ounce of his squad's talent. The supporters, rightly, adore their Spanish manager. He has given them magnificent nights in the Champions League and with Championship strugglers Cardiff City to come at home next week in the last 16 of an FA Cup already without Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, there's an opportunity to go deep in that competition, too.
Advertisement
As for the Premier League, Villa are stuck in a sluggish cycle, yet to fully click.
The 1-1 draw at home to third-bottom Ipswich Town on Saturday was another example of probable wins becoming draws and dropped points becoming all too common. An unbeaten home run of 12 league games masks the fact half those matches have ended all square. The one with Ipswich was arguably the most damaging, with Villa having played with an extra player for almost an hour following defender Axel Tuanzebe's sending-off.
Profligacy in front of goal has curtailed league form and emphasised defensive shortcomings. Before Ipswich, Villa had underperformed their expected goals (xG) number by 7.61. Essentially, this meant they should have nearly eight more goals this season than they did.
Emery's first success after arriving was solidifying the defence, critical in transforming a side who were relegation candidates then to deliver a top-seven finish six months later. This feels an anomaly considering the downward patterns since. Perceptions of Emery as a pragmatic manager are outdated — his squad-building suggests a more relaxed, free-wheeling approach.
At half-time on Saturday, he introduced Ian Maatsen and Rashford. The latter played wide left, prompting a diversion from Emery's insistence on his left midfielder being a No 10 in possession. Villa operated within a 4-2-4 against Ipswich's 10 men, using Rashford and Donyell Malen in the wide areas and exaggerating just how attacking the team became.
Villa appeared unnecessarily frenzied. With Emery loosening the chains, a sudden imbalance in attack emerged.
They pushed greater numbers into the opposition box but were left open on the break. Ipswich stayed resolute and when they could, they attacked. Manager Kieran McKenna detailed later how he told his players they would get a chance in the second half, even though it was 11 vs 10, which duly came and was pounced upon by Liam Delap.
Advertisement
Asensio was creative and showed instant quality, while Rashford's free kick cannoned off the crossbar and led to Ollie Watkins netting the rebound to equalise.
Emery was riled by suggestions Villa's structure suffered in the second half. He winced, shrugged and smiled, astonished by such accusations. 'You don't understand,' he said, explaining his team played forward too quickly, ceding possession and the ability to sustain attacks.
Nonetheless, that second half characterised their league form: spluttering, stuttering and conceding. Every game now is played under the enormous pressure of increasing revenue while building a team that sustains Emery's progress and stays within PSR constraints.
Quite simply, Villa need to win — now.