Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle United and a mini transfer window that should embarrass Premier League

Premier League clubs have had to get creative when it comes to addressing PSR concerns

The Premier League has created PSR chaos with failing to progress rules with changing financial dynamics of the game (GETTY IMAGES)

Whenever Sir Jim Ratcliffe speaks there tends to follow an avalanche of headlines.

Last week the Manchester United minority shareholder, whose acquisition of 27.7% of the club at the turn of the year saw him take ownership of football matters from and matters relating to what happens next with Old Trafford from the Glazer family, gave a revealing interview to Bloomberg.

As well as fielding questions over how he wanted Manchester United to use Real Madrid as the blueprint for success, and how the club had been blocked from signing Jean-Clair Todibo because of UEFA rules relating to the ownership of OGC Nice by Ratcliffe’s INEOS company, the 71-year-old British billionaire took aim at the Premier League’s much-maligned profit and sustainability rules (PSR), regulation that will be replaced at the end of this coming season by a model akin to UEFA’s squad cost ratio rule.

PSR allows clubs to make a maximum loss of £105m over a three-year period, with allowable deductions from losses for investment in infrastructure, the women’s game, the academy, and community projects. 

Introduced in 2012, that figure hadn’t been tested for a decade, and the £105m limit had not moved in line with inflation. But the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years saw Everton (twice), Nottingham Forest, and Leicester City hit with points deductions for breaching PSR.

But there are a host of clubs with work to do ahead of the current financial year for many clubs ending on June 30, as teams scramble to find profit from player trading to ease PSR concerns and stave off the threat of Premier League sanctions. It appears they have struck on a way of doing just that.