Aston Villa are reportedly in ongoing talks with Roberto Olabe to fill the void left behind by Monchi’s expected exit.
As per The Athletic, the Spaniard is set to leave the club, albeit the official reasoning behind the decision has yet to be clarified as it remains to be seen if it’s a personal decision, or one made by the club to replace him.
READ MORE: Key Villa figure tipped to leave club in major development
Nevertheless, as President of Football Operations, it’s imperative that Villa move quickly to find a suitable successor to take the club forward, and according to Matt Maher, talks are advancing between Villa and Olabe to become our new recruitment chief.
It’s also unclear at this stage if he will fill the exact same position or if there will be a restructuring of our management team, but particularly after a stellar job at Real Sociedad, this will hopefully prove to be an excellent appointment, if an agreement is indeed reached between the two parties.
Olabe, 57, has been credited with Sociedad’s rise in recent years through player trading and development having seen the likes of Alexander Isak, Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi come through the ranks during his time with the La Liga outfit, as well as a number of youth players.
He has been considered as one of the best around in his job for some time, and so it might well be seen as a coup for Villa should he arrive to aid Unai Emery in our recruitment moving forward.
Monchi undoubtedly had a difficult job on his hands over the past two years in navigating the respective financial regulations that have hindered our progress and ability to improve the squad. Further, both he and Director of Football Operations, Damian Vidagany, have gone on record as saying that Emery ultimately runs the show and that they facilitate his needs and demands in the transfer market.
In turn, while some of the criticism aimed at him for our seemingly poor recruitment over the past few transfer windows is misplaced, it feels as though it’s the right time to move on, provided that it doesn’t have a knock-on effect with Emery and other figures at the club, and so it will be fascinating to see what influence and impact it will have moving forward, either positive or negative.
