Yeah this is the hope for us as Villa fans. Spending is not just net transfer fees though, it’s wages as well. Villa still can’t get near any of the big 6 in terms of the wage bill.

If we were to qualify for the Champions League, get the revenue from that, bring in bigger sponsors, get more global fans, that’s when the gap would start to close.

Financial supremacy is what really sets the “Big 6” apart from the rest of the league. Their revenue is significantly higher which means they can spend a lot more under FFP. That allows them to keep the majority of their best players/staff and rebound when they go through a rough patch, or spend their way out of trouble, rather than just fading away.

There is a strong argument that having qualified for the Champions League, with other vastly increasing revenue streams and owners with a bottomless pit of money, Newcastle are on track to join them as a 7th financially dominant club.

For Villa, Brighton and West Ham, we are still a long way behind the Big 6 in terms of revenue and therefore spending power. It would take qualifying for the Champions League multiple times and rapid expansion of our global fanbases to close that gap.

Under Lerner he just handed wads of cash to Martin O’Neill to buy whoever he wanted. He spent it on ageing slightly above average players with no resale value. Lerner didn’t have the funds to sustain the spending, sold off our best players and cut off the money, which is why we ended up relegated.

The difference this time is Villa have huge financial backing and a proper structure in place. Villa players are all tied down to long contracts so if somebody wants to buy one, they’ll have to pay stupid money (e.g. Luiz to Arsenal in January is pure fantasy). If we did, that money would be reinvested in the squad and help us a lot with FFP.

This is early days for Villa - our squad can and will get a lot better. I don’t see why we can’t sustain a challenge to the big 6 in the long term, unless we make some really poor choices behind the scenes and if/when Emery leaves we do a bad job replacing him.

He’s a complete pain to play against, goes down easily to win free kicks and is always in the ref’s ear, so I can see why some opposition fans dislike him if they don’t look any deeper. Off the pitch he’s a fantastic bloke. We’re lucky to have him.