Unai Emery may be the mastermind behind Aston Villa’s Europa League success, but Monchi deserves his flowers too.
That’s at least the tone that AS take up today as they big up the Spanish director of football and his role in Aston Villa’s success.
Aston Villa success
The newspaper insist that, while he might have left Aston Villa last year, Monchi’s fingerprints were all over Aston Villa’s win in the Europa League this week.
They explain that up to seven of the players signed by Monchi between September 2023 and last September, when he left Villa Park, had a ‘direct impact’ on the final. They have played similar roles in the fourth placed finish in 2023/24, the FA Cup semi-final run in last season and the Champions League quarter-final run a year ago.
His ‘greatest success’ is undeniably Morgan Rogers, signed from Middlesbrough for €9.4m in January 2025. He was on the scoresheet against Freiburg. Then there’s Youri Tielemans, who bagged the opening goal. He was a free agent in 2023.
Even Victor Lindelöf, a signing late in the summer, was a starter. There’s also Pau Torres, another of his big signings.
Substitutes too
AS even give him credit for the substitutes. Amadou Onana, Ian Maatsen and Jadon Sancho were all brought in under his watch as well. They had less of an impact on proceeding than Rogers and Tielemans, of course, but still played their parts.
It seems the Spanish newspaper want some reflected glory for Monchi. As far as they’re concerned, the Europa League success shows he dodged PSR, FFP and everything in between in his last summer. These all could have ‘prevented them from winning the Europa League title’.
Instead, it’s success this week, a European trophy and a return to the Champions League next season. Monchi, meanwhile, gets ready to start work at Espanyol, who will be hoping for a similar long-term impact.
