Paul Merson: Spending Rules Will Block Aston Villa's Premier League Title Ambitions

Paul Merson believes football’s fussy spending rules will prevent Aston Villa from converting their Europa League triumph into a Premier League title challenge.

Currently fourth in the top flight, after finishing last season in sixth, Villa ended their 30-year wait for a major trophy when they beat German team Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Squad-cost ratio directives being introduced for next season will cap the club’s outlay on wages, transfer fees and agents’ fees at 85 per cent of their turnover, preventing the billionaire owners, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, from digging into their own deep pockets.

“The rules won’t let Villa compete [for the Premier League], they’re not going to be in for the £80-to-£90 million [US$107-to-US$120 million] players Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool go for,” former Villa and England forward Merson told the South China Morning Post.

“Villa are a massive club, but they’re always going to get the scratchings.”

Although he understands the desire to protect clubs from profligate bosses, Merson said spending limits have shrunk the ambitions of all but a handful of teams.

“I don’t think it’s right – if [an owner] can give the cash [to a club] I don’t see the problem in spending it,” Merson said. “[The rules] keep the top four or five in place because there’s no way of catching them. It’s a shame … if a billionaire wanted to take over [League Two] Rochdale and try to take them to the promised land, he wouldn’t be allowed.”