Spanish outlet Marca today features a good interview with Aston Villa director Monchi.
The local media continue to be very interested in Monchi, given his past at Sevilla.
Monchi started by claiming that he has all the resources to do a good job at Aston Villa.
“It has been a very important change in my life. I have left a club where I have spent practically my entire professional career for a new championship and a new club,” said Monchi.
“There are enough tools to be able to try to build a nice project. There’s a good base from last year, from the time Emery arrived. You have to take advantage of that base and that confidence of the coaching staff to prop up the project and continue to grow.”
Regarding the work with Unai Emery, Monchi ended up even giving a few details on how they choose the targets that Aston Villa are going for.
“Damià and I have an advantage, that we have both worked with Emery. I at Seville and he at Valencia. We know how he is. Unai is not complicated because there is a very great proximity. We don’t have fixed meetings, but we have breakfast together, we eat together, we have offices next to each other. We soak up what Unai needs on a day-to-day basis. He marks the profiles and the style of the player, and we give him names, and he assesses, and we come to the conclusion and sign.”
Asked if there’s a chance Aston Villa can fight the big six in the Premier League, Monchi was very clear.
“Rather than fighting, the first thing to do is settle down and build a base from which to start climbing. I don’t believe much in increases from one day to the next. That causes big drops. We must prop up and give solidity and guarantees to what has been built. The goal always has to be the maximum possible. The higher we aspire, the higher we can reach. But always with coherent arguments and without selling smoke.”
As for the final weeks of the transfer window, Monchi has no doubt that Aston Villa will still be working on new signings.
“We are active to give depth to the squad. If we pass the Conference League play-offs we can have 55 games this year. We are moving things so that Unai has the maximum arguments.”
So far in this transfer window, Aston Villa completed the signings of Moussa Diaby, Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans. With the Leicester City player arriving as a free agent, Monchi has only spent €88m of the club’s budget so far, and can apparently use more of that.
