Top 10 most expensive Aston Villa sales of all time as PSR threat hovers again and Rogers gets huge price tag

Aston Villa are looking over their shoulders at the threat of PSR sanctions again, despite making three of their four biggest sales of all time within the past 12 months.

Villa have had to make some big sacrifices in recent transfer windows due to the Premier League’s PSR restrictions. It has been an endless source of frustration for a club that broke into the top four last season and have been pushing around the European places again.

There are now murmurings that Villa will have to make a significant sale again before the end of June to avoid the risk of any PSR punishments.

They have some valuable players in their squad, such as Morgan Rogers, who TEAMtalk understands is now valued at £90m.

It remains to be seen who Villa can keep hold of this summer, especially if they miss out on Champions League football, but as things stand, here are the 10 most expensive sales they’ve agreed in their history.

10. Cameron Archer – £18m

A product of the Villa academy, Archer made 13 appearances for the club before a breakout loan spell in the Championship with Middlesbrough in 2023.

One last appearance for Villa followed at the start of the new season before he was sold to Sheffield United for £18m.

The striker scored four goals for the Blades, who were unable to avoid relegation back to the Championship. Consequently, Villa activated their buyback clause to re-sign Archer for a reported £14m.

However, that simply helped them to turn another quick profit as they sold him to Southampton for £15m. Once again, Archer was part of a side that suffered relegation.

9. Carney Chukwuemeka – £20m

Villa’s Academy Player of the Season for 2020-21, Chukwuemeka became one of the many players Chelsea signed in their infamous 2022 summer spree.

Chukwuemeka was 18 years old at the time of his exit from Villa, where he’d made the first 16 appearances of his senior career.

Chelsea gave him a six-year contract and a salary worth up to £100,000 per week, which was an amount Villa would have been willing to offer him to stay too.

However, he rejected their attempts to keep him and left for Chelsea, where he would be used sparingly until a February 2025 loan move to Borussia Dortmund.

=7. Stewart Downing – £20m

Signed from Middlesbrough for an initial £10m in 2009, Downing became someone Villa doubled their money on within just two seasons.

The winger played 79 times for Villa, scoring 11 goals. A week before his 27th birthday, he completed a move to Liverpool for £20m.

Villa originally turned down a £15m bid by Liverpool, but Downing handed in a transfer request and they ultimately relented.

Downing went on to play 91 times for Liverpool, where he stayed for the same number of seasons as he had at Villa but had more European involvement. However, the Reds made a loss on him when West Ham bought him for just £5m in 2013.

=7. Jaden Philogene – £20m

Like Archer, Philogene is another academy product Villa have sold, bought back and sold again.

His journey with the club began as a 15-year-old and he made six senior appearances before Hull City bought him in September 2023 for around £5m.

Philogene lit up the Championship, which encouraged Villa to re-sign him. When the original sale took place, they agreed to have matching rights if anyone else tried to take Philogene from Hull.

Ipswich made an £18m move for the winger, which Villa matched – and got 30% of the price back due to a sell-on clause.

After 15 appearances without scoring, Philogene became an Ipswich target again six months later and this time Villa let them have him for £20m.

6. James Milner – £26m

Milner made exactly 100 Premier League appearances in Villa colours between a loan spell in 2005-06 and after his permanent transfer from Newcastle United in 2008.

Villa paid £12m to sign the versatile midfielder, who during his time representing the club also earned his first senior caps for England.

The summer in which Villa signed Milner was also the one in which Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi takeover was completed. As a new era of big spending commenced, Milner became a top target for City within a couple of years.

A deal was agreed in August 2010 for Milner to be sold to City in a £26m package, which included £8m counterpart Stephen Ireland going the other way.

Milner enjoyed five fruitful seasons in Manchester, winning City’s first two Premier League titles, before leaving in a free transfer to Liverpool.

5. Christian Benteke – £32.5m

Villa got fantastic value for money out of their £7m purchase of Benteke from Genk in August 2012. During his debut season alone, he scored 23 goals.

The Belgium striker handed in a transfer request after that campaign, but was talked back around into staying and enjoyed another two years at Villa Park, falling one short of 50 goals for the club.

In 2015, Liverpool activated Benteke’s £32.5m release clause, bringing an end to his Villa spell.

Benteke only lasted one season with Liverpool, who replaced Brendan Rodgers with Jurgen Klopp partway through it. He later moved to Crystal Palace at a similar price.

Although he spent twice as many seasons at Palace, Villa remain the Premier League club he scored the most goals for.

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4. Douglas Luiz – £42.4m

One of Villa’s most popular players in recent memory, Douglas Luiz joined from Manchester City – where he’d been unable to play due to work permit issues – for just £15m in 2019.

What followed? Five seasons of top-class service to Villa, including 204 appearances and 22 goals. The Brazil midfielder became a hugely desirable asset.

Arsenal made three bids for Douglas Luiz in September 2022, reaching a high point of £25m, but Villa stood firm and tied him down to a new deal.

He went on to win the Players’ Player of the Season and Supporters’ Player of the Season awards for Villa in 2022-23.

Their decision to sell him eventually – to Juventus in 2024 – was a reluctant one. Due to PSR pressure, Villa agreed to cash in for £42.4m.

In separate deals that went through a day later, but on the following season’s accounts, Villa bought Enzo Barrenechea and Samuel Iling-Junior from Juventus for a total of £18.6m.

Somewhat surprisingly, Douglas Luiz has struggled so far to find consistency at Juventus. Barrenechea and Iling-Junior, meanwhile, were both loaned out by Villa for 2024-25.

3. Moussa Diaby – £50.5m

Diaby was a one-season wonder for Villa, who bought him from Bayer Leverkusen for a club-record fee in 2023. It allowed him to reunite with Unai Emery after their time together at Paris Saint-Germain.

In his single season in the Premier League, he helped Villa achieve access to the following Champions League. However, he wouldn’t be part of it.

The high-spending Saudi Pro League came calling for the winger, who is a Muslim, and Al-Ittihad agreed a five-year deal to take him to the Middle East.

Diaby had played in all 38 of Villa’s league games during the 2023-24 season; across all competitions, he scored 10 goals from 54 appearances.

The fee Villa banked was similar to what they spent on Diaby in the first place. It made him Al-Ittihad’s record signing, overtaking former Liverpool midfielder Fabinho, and – at the time – the joint-second biggest signing in Saudi Pro League history.

2. Jhon Duran – £64m

An even bigger fee landed in Villa’s coffers from the Saudi Pro League when Al-Nassr paid £64m for Jhon Duran in January 2025.

It was a hotly debated move. Duran was just 21 years old at the time of his Premier League exit, just as he was starting to push for more playing time. In fact, he left Villa no more than three months after signing a new, long-term contract.

But on the flipside, Duran wasn’t getting the regular starts he may have felt his goals-to-games ratio deserved. The opportunity to play for the same team as Cristiano Ronaldo, on a lucrative contract, helped sway him.

Duran scored twice on his debut for Al-Nassr, opening his account within 22 minutes. Villa turned to the loan market to replace him, bringing in Marcus Rashford from Manchester United for six months with a £40m option to buy.

The profit Villa made on Duran in the space of 18 months was substantial. The original fee they paid Chicago Fire for him was £14.75m, rising to £17m. A profit of at least £44m is their biggest ever on any player who didn’t come through their own academy.

1 Jack Grealish – £100m

A Villa fan who joined their academy as a six-year-old and went on to become their club captain, it was going to take something special to get Grealish out of the club.

The attacking midfielder made 213 appearances for Villa, even sticking with them for three seasons in the Championship before being a key part of their first two back in the Premier League.

After being chosen as Villa’s player of the season by supporters and his teammates for 2019-20, Grealish began attracting serious interest from elsewhere, but signed a new contract.

A year later, there was little Villa could do as Manchester City triggered a £100m release clause to make Grealish their new no.10.

“Jack wanted to be certain that if at any point a Champions League club came in for him and Aston Villa were not in the competition we would not stand in his way – for that reason we agreed to incorporate a so-called release clause into his contract,” chief executive Christian Purslow explained.

“Our board set this clause at a value of £100m knowing that would be, by some way, a record price for a British footballer and also a record fee for any player bought by a Premier League club.

“We set the value at a level we hoped would not be met, but which would reflect his truly unique value to Aston Villa.”

The move broke the British transfer record and made Grealish the most expensive English player in history. He went on to win the Premier League in his first season with Man City and then the treble in his second.

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