On Tuesday, Aston Villa confirmed that Monchi has stepped down from his role as the president of football operations and Roberto Olabe will replace him in Birmingham.
Cadena Ser reported on Tuesday that Monchi decided to leave due to disagreements with Aston Villa.
Diario de Sevilla back that up and provide another reason why the Spaniard left Villa Park, also throwing the Birmingham weather into the mix.
Unai Emery’s side invested around €30m in the summer window and have endured a difficult start to this season. They are knocked out of the EFL Cup and their failure to win any of their five league matches have seen them currently sit in the relegation zone.
Diario de Sevilla report sporting and financial aspects have ‘created a perfect climate’ for Monchi to return to Spain while there’s an ’emotional factor’ key to his Aston Villa exit.
The 57-year-old started his management career at Sevilla and left them from AS Roma in 2017. He was shown the exit door at the Italian club in 2019 and returned to the La Liga side later that year and was their sporting director until the end of the 2022/23 season.
It’s claimed ’emotional aspect always played a significant role’ in his exit from Sevilla on both occasions and the report adds this has been repeated at Aston Villa, resulting in his exit.
The newspaper state suggests the weather, literally and perhaps metaphorically was also key: ‘The grey skies of Birmingham have had as much, if not more, influence on Monchi’s decision than Aston Villa’s poor start, which has only been able to invest around €30m due to exceeding the Premier League’s fair play rules, where it has the lowest salary cap of the 20 teams. Roberto Olabe, a close associate of Unai Emery, is replacing him at Villa Park.’
