Aston Villa, thankfully, no longer under EFL transfer embargo

Previously operating under a ‘soft’ transfer embargo for financial mismanagement, Aston Villa were finally able to announce their first summer transfer signing.

It took awhile, but on Wednesday, Aston Villa Football Club was able to announce their first summer inbound transfer. 22-year old Atlético Madrid goalkeeper André Moreira joined the club on loan with an option to buy.

Why did it take so long?

Well, the English Football League imposed a certain amount of restrictions on transfer activity for the failure of Dr. Tony Xia’s team to exercise internal controls on financial reporting. Quite frankly, the EFL was not going to let Villa spend on players after missing a tax bill, borrowing against assets as collateral, and axing staff and players at an alarmingly high rate. The date, as it’s put, was the kicker. Wednesday was the first day in August that sparked the end of the embargo.

As such, the Aston Villa social team announced Moreira:

What should we expect moving forward?

There could be more aggressive moves in the next week or so. There have been whispers around the new ownership group at NSWE that Jack Grealish and James Chester won’t be sold. That might be the case, but FFP, and the potential points deduction, is still a concern. Aston Villa can plan for replacements should players in the current squad find deals elsewhere. Moreover, the squad needs strengthened in general, where left back and centre back remain question marks. With four centre-forwards out injured, too, Bruce needs another striker to come in right away and bag goals.

The claret and blues have been linked with Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and West Ham’s Jordan Hugill in recent days. It’s hard seeing a Premier League club agree to a loan unless one or two of the currently injured forwards move on loan in another direction, for what it’s worth.