Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has revealed that he’s struggling to offload high-earning players this summer.
The former Hull and Sunderland manager has confirmed that the club are struggling to sell high-earning duo Micah Richards and Ross McCormack, as no clubs want to buy them.
Richards currently earns £50,000-per-week and has a year left on his contract (Sillyseason) while McCormack has two years left to run on a £40,000-per-week deal (Mirror), making it a total drain of £90,000-a-week on the club.
Manager Steve Bruce has revealed the difficulties he’s had in trying to sell the duo.
“We’ve got to be realistic, the only time you can shift them is when somebody wants them,” Bruce told the Birmingham Mail.
“Obviously we’ve got some big earners at the club. That’s what Aston Villa is, it’s a big club and people have earned big money.
“What’s important is we keep the ones we want and of course there will be a few who ultimately move on.
“But sometimes when they’re on big salaries then you’ve obviously got to be patient and wait for their contracts to run out.”
OPINION
It is absolutely ridiculous that these players were given these massive contracts in the first place. This just proves how poorly Villa have been run over the past few seasons. The club got comfortable in the Premier League and thought they were untouchable, but look how far they’ve fallen and the financial trouble that they’ve put themselves in. Over the last two seasons, the club’s former chairman Tony Xia has put all his eggs in the promotion basket, knowing that if they didn’t manage to secure a route back to the Premier League they would be in major trouble, and so it’s proved. The only way they’ll get rid of players like Richards and McCormack is if they simply wait till their contracts run out, which will cost the Villians a fortune, but they have forced themselves into a corner and that remains their only option. Bruce will have to make do with them for now.