Aston Villa director of football Monchi did not join the club this summer for the money on offer, but was ‘seduced’ by the idea of reuniting with Unai Emery.
Damià Vidagany, the director of operations at Aston Villa, maintains that the hiring was about more than just possible financial gain.
Monchi chose to finish his second stint at Sevilla early in order to take a position as director of football at Aston Villa in the summer. He had spent his first 17 years at the club between 2000 and 2017 before leaving to join Roma for a disastrous two-year stay in Italy. He has been with the Spanish team since 2019. This was his second stint at the club. Despite his second tenure at Sevilla being nowhere near as successful as the first with several transfers not working out for him or the club, he had been extremely well thought of there.
At the time, the Sevilla hierarchy was somewhat taken aback by his choice to depart and even advocate for his transfer to Aston Villa in the summer, especially as discussions with the Premier League team for him were taking a long time.
There was discussion that Monchi had merely relocated in order to take advantage of the money being offered, but Vidagany is adamant that this was untrue. “Although I have a lot of respect for Pepe Castro, José María del Nido, and Sevilla FC, I don’t think Monchi leaves Sevilla for money,” he stated.
“He is content at Villa. However, I can state this emphatically since I am aware of the circumstances he faced and continues to face.
“Monchi leaves there for two reasons: one, he has his own reasons; and second, he is tempted to work with Unai Emery once more and take on a challenging project that also makes some adjustments to what he has been overseeing.
“I believe that he felt that the Premier League, which I won’t claim to be the best in the world because La Liga and the Bundesliga have the most sought-after professionals in the world today, is the right place for him to prove himself.”
