Reports suggesting that Aston Villa have made an approach for Barcelona sporting director Mateu Alemany have been dismissed.
Speculation is seemingly rife currently over a potential change or addition to the Villa hierarchy, with Estadio Deportivo reporting last week that with Antonio Cordon set to leave Real Betis at the end of the season, he could take up a position with us.
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It had been reported in Spain on Monday that Villa had made an approach for Alemany too, but as per the Express and Star’s Matt Maher, that is said to not be the case as that claim has been dismissed.
While that may well be the case, the fact that we’ve been linked with various sporting directors in recent months since Unai Emery took charge would suggest that the possibility of a reshuffle is being considered for the summer.
Not only does it raise question marks over the future of our current sporting director Johan Lange, but it would also point towards Emery’s involvement in decision-making at the club as he will likely prefer to have his own choice in that role to help with recruitment.
Time will tell how the situation plays out at the end of the season, but for now, it seems as though Alemany can be removed from the list of potential candidates that Villa are considering, while we wait to see if that is an area that will be addressed in the summer.
Ideally, if a change is to be made in that department, it will come sooner than that, as it will give any new appointment as much time as possible to prepare with Emery for the summer transfer window and begin work on identifying targets and analysing how the squad will shape up moving forward.
For now though, nothing seems to be particularly close to happening, as it remains to be seen if Villa are genuinely thinking about an important change to the set-up in the hierarchy with Lange possibly being replaced.