Aston Villa chief Dean Smith: Gap could shorten in Premier League

Clubs on the whole were reluctant to spend in the January transfer window, potentially opening the door for sides such as Villa to make ground on the traditional ‘big six’.

Smith, though, says the gap can only be bridged if the right players arrive.

“If you look at the January window as a whole there’s not an awful lot happened," he said.

"A lot of fingers will be pointed at the Coronavirus for that but we’ve also got to remember Brexit has come in now as well and that’s led to a restriction on trade with the rest of Europe.

“So whether it’s the haves or have-nots, in general the entire recruitment drive has slowed up a little bit and it will be more of a summer window now than ever before.

“I think that can narrow the gap. We’ve still got to go and perform and get the right players in and improve those players to perform.

“It takes a few years to catch up with the likes of Tottenham and Arsenal, and even longer to catch up with the Manchester Citys and Liverpools.

“But we are using the time wisely ourselves as you have seen with the acquisition of Morgan Sanson.

“Christian Purslow explained it really well. Sanson was a summer window signing he was looking at, but he’s such a good value signing in this window that we managed to get him earlier than we expected.”