Villa receive £72 million windfall at season's end

Given the fact that Aston Villa had one of their worst seasons in recent memory, they actually made out fairly well in the end-of-the-season prize money category. Thanks largely in part to a new television deal, the club took home £72,666,897 this year, which is a 61.6% increase over last year's total. 

The amount includes £7.4 million for finishing in 15th and £52.2 million of television revenues, which are split evenly among the league's twenty teams. In addition, Villa have received £13.1 million in facilities fees for 16 televised matches this year (£750,000 per match). Thanks to the number of televised matches, Villa actually ended up earning more prize money than did Sunderland, who finished one spot ahead of them. 

Elsewhere in the table, the top earners were actually Liverpool. Despite their late-season collapse costing them the title, they were featured on TV 28 times, as opposed to only 25 for Manchester City. 

The numbers are one reason why we shouldn't be too worried about Aston Villa finding a buyer, as the Premier League is one of the richest in the world. All told, there were £1.5 billion to be split among the 20 teams, assuring that even bottom-of-the-table Cardiff took home more than £60 million. That's nothing to sneeze at, and it's more reason why Premier League clubs are still treasured investments. 

Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that much of this money will go towards a transfer budget. While Randy Lerner has agreed to give some funds to Paul Lambert to make necessary changes, it's hard to imagine there being too much available.