Monchi Set To Leave Aston Villa With Transfer Legacy Up For Debate

Aston Villa will reportedly lose their President of Football Operations, Monchi, after the Spaniard decided to leave the club this week.

The former Sevilla and AS Roma sporting director apparently made the decision to leave Villa Park after a relatively short two year stint with the club.

Monchi was close with manager Unai Emery and the pair worked well together with recruitment and transfer plans in particular their key partnership.

Recent signings have come under intense scrutiny from the support, however, with their club sitting 18th in the Premier League thus far with just three points to show for their opening five matches.

Monchi’s decision to step down has coincided with the poor form from the Villans but the chief opted to wait until the summer transfer window was fully finished with before making his choice.

Monchi set to leave Aston Villa as president of football operations

Yet the questions remain over his personnel decisions and some of the players signed to the club under his guidance.

The 57-year-old was key in bringing Morgan Rogers to the team from Middlesbrough back in 2024 and the 23-year-old has been the one key standout for Villa since he arrived.

The playmaker has 17 goals and as many assists in 76 appearances for the club in all competitions since he joined but this term so far has barely been able to make any sort of impact at all.

Youri Tielemans was another signing under Monchi alongside director of football Damien Vidagany with the Belgian arriving on a free transfer after deciding to leave Leicester City in 2023.

The midfielder has been out of action for a few weeks this term but is set to make a comeback which should provide a fresh spark for the team who have missed his creativity.

But while there have been successes, there can also be disappointments pointed to by the punters who are yet to be impressed by Amadou Onana who cost a pretty penny from Everton.

Close to £55million was spent on the 24-year-old but he has been hampered by injury while fitness issues have also taken hold.

The guts of £200m was splashed out last season – as well as loans for Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio – while this term they barely spent much at all by comparison.

Who will replace Monchi at Villa?

Again there were loan deals sanctioned for Harvey Elliott from Liverpool and Manchester United’s Jadon Sancho who struggled to find a club before Villa swooped.

Monchi’s success rate can be discussed among supporters and surely will be after the announcement, but they will also be keen to learn more about the man chosen to replace him.

According to multiple reports Roberto Olabe will take over his role. He left Real Sociedad at the end of last season and had been considered by Villa previously.

He was also contacted prior to that conversation by Arsenal to potentially replace Edu while Real Madrid considered his experience.

During his spell at Real Sociedad, he played a key role in shaping squads that developed talents such as Alexander Isak, Mikel Merino, Martin Odegaard, and Martin Zubimendi.