Aston Villa are reportedly willing to pay the £1.7m release clause to prise sporting director Monchi away from Sevilla this summer.
The club officially announced the departure of Christian Purslow as CEO and director on Monday morning, and that decision is expected to be part of a broader management restructuring process that is taking place.
READ MORE: What Villa ownership said as Purslow exit announced
After the appointment of Chris Heck as V Sports’ President of Business Operations last month, The Telegraph report that Heck will now run the business side at Villa, while the owners are prepared to pay the compensation required to free Monchi from his contract at Sevilla in order to appoint him as a key figure on the sporting side.
It’s added that Purslow was offered a different position but opted to step down instead, and so now the pieces are starting to fall into place for Villa’s changes to the management infrastructure at the club, but time will tell if we land the final part in the form of Monchi.
All of this will be part of the plan to give Unai Emery more support in delivering on his vision and ambitions moving forward, with the Villa boss said to have an influential role off the pitch too as we look to build on the progress we made last season.
While we’ve already moved to make our first summer signing with Youri Tielemans set to join us on July 1 as a free agent, the addition of a sporting director will undoubtedly help Emery in his plans to strengthen the squad and mould it into his own, while Heck’s experience and previous success will certainly help us grow off the pitch.
In turn, it’s another exciting development this summer as Villa owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens seemingly make integral changes to the way the club is run to ensure we become a more competitive outfit, both on and off the pitch, in the long-term future.
Time will tell if we can indeed prise Monchi away from Sevilla to perhaps complete our management plans, but with the departure of Purslow, it’s likely that we’ll move on and identify an alternative instead now having already seen a move for Mateu Alemany break down after he ultimately decided to stay at Barcelona.
