There is a myth surrounding finances going around at the moment and why other teams are spending more than us and I for one am getting a little fed up with it so I've done a little research into transfer spending since David O'Leary joined Aston Villa at the beginning of the 2003/04 season.

Aston Villa have spent ?22,350,000 on new players and got back ?5,920,000 in sales giving us a net spend of ?16,430,000.

This net spend is only ?570,000 behind that of Birmingham City over the same period but more than Arsenal (-?1,800,00), Blackburn (-?3,850,000), Bolton (?3,450,000), Charlton (?671,000), Everton (-?1,650,000), Fulham (-?11,965,000), Manchester City (-?21,725,000), Middlesbrough (?11,800,000), Portsmouth (?560,000), Sunderland (-?10,625,000), West Ham (-?27,590,000) and Wigan (?5,965,000).

If we just look at the summer spending our net figure is ?7,500,000 and that beats the likes of Arsenal (-?13,350,000), Birmingham (-?1,300,000), Blackburn (?5,000,000), Bolton (?1,000,000), Charlton (?500,000), Fulham (?1,825,000), Manchester City (-?19,000,000), Portsmouth (-?3,740,000), Sunderland (?875,000), Spurs (?5,100,000) and Wigan (?4,350,000).

If we were to just look at actual spend in the summer our ?11,000,000 spend is only beaten by Chelsea (?53,400,000), Everton (?12,000,000), Liverpool (?24,000,000), Manchester United (?17,500,000) and Newcastle (?30,800,000).

The above figures put things into perspective. It is a business after all.

Now, I'm not a member of the Doug Ellis fan club but the guy is taking a lot of flack at the moment when most is not justified.

Since O'Leary became manager every season has seen Villa spending more than we've gotten back in sales and we've only gone backwards in terms of league position and quality of football.

There are times to throw money at new players and there are times when things need to be slowed down.

Doug Ellis sending back Eirik Bakke is a clear indication that O'Leary now has to work with what he has got and prove that he can do a job.

Doug Ellis has never not given a manager funds - probably not as much as most would like but there has to be a period of time where the manager has to demonstrate he can do the job of managing the team that he has with the new signings rather than always adding to the team.

Managing a Premiership team isn't just about bringing in new players and spending cash. It's about developing what you've got to be a better team and to win matches. I'm not seeing any of this with O'Leary but if he did start to do it then my view would change.

Full net spends for the past three seasons of teams not mentioned above are:

Chelsea - ?239,100,000

Liverpool - ?51,200,000

Manchester United - ?40,340,000

Newcastle - ?21,650,000

Tottenham Hotspur - ?23,300,000

West Brom - ?17,370,000