Unai Emery is reportedly leading the way to try and bring Monchi to Aston Villa, while it’s suggested he has told Sevilla of his desire to leave.
Villa have been paired with making an important directorial appointment this summer, with Mateu Alemany previously heavily linked with a position before ultimately deciding to stay at Barcelona.
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While other names have emerged as potential candidates, Monchi has seemingly now become our top target for a position in the management infrastructure, with Marca reporting that Emery is at the ‘head of the operation’ to bring the 54-year-old to Villa.
It’s added that he would have a significant budget to sign players as part of an ambitious project with Villa looking to compete at the top level moving forward, while interest from Tottenham has been touted but Villa are seemingly in pole position to convince him to try a new challenge.
Meanwhile, Diario de Sevilla have reported that Monchi has informed Sevilla of his wish to leave due to personal reasons, and has requested to be released from the termination clause in his contract with the belief that it’s Villa’s interest in him that is behind the decision.
At this stage, it remains to be seen if the La Liga side are willing to facilitate an exit for him and open the door for a switch to join us, but ultimately it does sound as though Villa are serious about the appointment and have now identified our primary candidate.
It is clearly something that has been prioritised by the club, and perhaps specifically Emery, for months now given the speculation linking us with various names, and so time will tell how that impacts those currently in positions on the sporting side, most notably Johan Lange.
Nevertheless, it’s important that the Villa boss has the support around him that he feels can help him take us to the very top level, and having his own sporting or technical director to help assemble and improve the squad would certainly be a big boost.
It’s been a busy summer already off the pitch for Villa in terms of making changes to the management structure, and it’s hoped that if our pursuit of Monchi is serious, a deal can be done to bring him in sooner rather than later, as it would be likely that we’re waiting for that to be secured first before kick-starting our recruitment push this summer.
