Leicester fracas costs Villa one week of Scott Sinclair

Aston Villa have been fined £60,000 for their involvement in a little on-the-pitch scuffle during the Leicester City match. You may remember it for being the incident in which Matty James made a hard tackle on Jores Okore, which prompted Ciaran Clark to run to get the ball for the free kick and perhaps accidentally (quotation marks needed?) run into James. Then James popped up, a headlock ensued, and pretty soon everyone was all riled up. James got a red and Clark got his second yellow of the match. And now Villa have been fined.

This is the third time this season that such a fine has been levied against the club. The first came after a similar fight with Tottenham which cost the club £20,000. The second came after the players' indignant reaction to a red card received by Gabby Agbonlahor against Manchester United that was later rescinded. That cost everyone £30,000.

So all told, Villa are up to £110,000 in disciplinary fines this season. Put another way, since we're in the heart of the January transfer window, that's 2+ weeks of Scott Sinclair's wages (with the latest fine being one such week). For a club that seem to not be able to get Sinclair because of wage-based reasons, just think of what having that money around could do.