Aston Villa sack transfer chief in ‘monumental departure’ as club addresses chaos
Monchi, Aston Villa’s president of football operations, has been relieved of his duties, according to several reports.
Villa have put together a historically bad start to the season, losing two and drawing three of their first five matches in the Premier League, scoring a single goal in the process. They exited the League Cup at the first opportunity.
The sense of unrest at the club is evident on the pitch. Whatever the root cause of the underperformance of manager Unai Emery and his players, the tangible outcome is a season that’s already in need of major reparatory action.
They must take their own professional responsibility for the performances and results so far but it’s not entirely surprising that Villa have effectively confirmed that all is not well behind the scenes.
The summer transfer business and the machinations behind it have clearly destroyed morale at Villa. Even Emery stinks of it. We will likely never know exactly who made the decision to sack Monchi but it seems he is considered at least partially culpable for the substandard output on the field.
What does Monchi’s sacking mean for Villa?
The implications and repercussions of Monchi’s departure will depend entirely on how it came about.
If Emery is supportive of the decision, Villa will get a new sporting director and everyone will get on with their lives. If Monchi is in some way the source of the evident discontent among the squad, it might even lighten the mood.
If Emery is not behind the decision, Villa have a problem that will play out with increasing acrimony between the manager and the owners.
It could be speculated that the owners have removed a key Emery ally to signal the manager’s vulnerability or that they’ve simply taken a necessary decision without his blessing, but it’s noteworthy that the first unsourced claim that Monchi was gone, hours before the news broke elsewhere, indicated that Emery was ‘furious’ with him.
Either way, V Sports tends not to dither. If Nassef Sawiris thinks someone needs to go, they’re going to go. This is a fractious situation but decisive action one way or the other was needed.
We will learn in the coming weeks whether it’s had the desired effect. If not, Emery himself will be the next man in the harsh glare of the spotlight.
The manager can’t be uncoupled from Villa’s transfer business; the club’s own communications charm offensive has seen to that. Monchi, rightly or wrongly, has taken the fall.
“This is a monumental departure in Villa’s hierarchy, with Monchi forming the triangle of power alongside Emery and director of football operations, Damian Vidagany,” writes Jacob Tanswell of The Athletic. “The trio had been extremely close and were the front-facing figures in Villa’s remarkable rise.”
All we can hope as supporters is that Monchi was considered a problem that needed fixing and the impact of fixing it will mark the beginning of the end of the turbulence.
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