Aston villa chief's huge admission as newcastle send 'strong' transfer message

It was an end of season awards night to remember for Aston Villa last year. Champagne was sprayed. Napkins were twirled in the air. The players even screamed after they found out they had

qualified for the Champions League following Spurs' defeat against Manchester City. In contrast, at this season's bash, Damian Vidagany, Aston Villa's director of football

operations, warned a packed audience at Villa Park that a 'challenging summer' lay ahead. "With the PSR, with the financial rules, it is going to be a hard summer," the

Spaniard admitted even before it was confirmed that Aston Villa missed out on the top five on the final day. Qualification, alone, is estimated to be worth £80m by football finance expert

Kieran Maguire and Newcastle United will feel the benefit - 12 months after the most challenging summer club staff had ever experienced. The full extent of Newcastle's PSR issues had

not yet come to light, externally, last May but those at the very top knew there was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off on June 30 unless there were significant sales. "There's

a lot of uncertainty over transfers in general," Eddie Howe admitted at the time. It left Newcastle in a mightily vulnerable position to the point where talks were even held with

Liverpool regarding Anthony Gordon before the Magpies managed to sell Yankuba Minteh to Brighton and Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest to avoid a PSR breach and points deduction. It was a

scarring experience. Senior figures were united in never wanting to find themselves in that position again. There was certainly no prospect of Newcastle rolling the dice in January; on the

contrary, the black-and-whites moved on Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly for PSR reasons and ended a second successive window in profit. The result? Newcastle are now in a healthier position

to finally strengthen following nearly two years without a major signing. "We're looking to reverse what we did last summer," Howe vowed just a few days ago. "We're

in a strong position ourselves to make additions." In truth, Howe spoke bullishly even before Newcastle qualified for the Champions League. This has been a month where the Newcastle

boss has revealed that historic PSR 'issues are not there so I don't see any reason why we can't strengthen'. Howe has spoken of having a 'different mindset and

different possibilities' compared to a year ago. The Magpies head coach has even talked up the prospect of 'taking advantage of other clubs' who have to sell before the end of

next month. Another summer of boardroom upheaval lies ahead, but this feels like a very different window. "The planning and all the things going on behind the scenes have been there

for a number of weeks," Howe added. "We have been working hard to try and set things up for what we need to do." _Here at ChronicleLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the

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