Aston Villa‘s Unai Emery isn’t ruling out a reunion with Monchi, after previously working with him at Sevilla and the Premier League side.
He joined Sevilla in 2013 when Monchi was their sporting director. The La Liga side had a successful period under Emery, winning three Europa Leagues in a row.
The current Aston Villa manager left the Andalusian club for PSG in 2016. A year later, the director left Sevilla for AS Roma, only to return in 2019.
Monchi ended his second spell with the Spanish club in 2023 and joined the Villans. The Spaniard moved to Villa Park in July 2023, nine months after Emery took charge of the club.
Emery wanted Monchi at Arsenal and PSG before Aston Villa
The manager spent two years at Paris Saint-Germain and moved to Arsenal in 2018. His time with the Gunners came to an end in November 2019, and they appointed Mikel Arteta a month later.
Meanwhile, Monchi ended his time with the Europa League winners in September 2025 to give solely focus on CD San Fernando. In the summer, he also joined Espanyol as their sporting director.
Last month, the director said Unai Emery wanted him at Arsenal and PSG before joining Aston Villa.
Sevilla are hosting the English club in a friendly later today. This gave Diario de Sevilla an opportunity to interview the 54-year-old manager.
Aston Villa financial situation partly led to exit
Emery couldn’t tell Monchi well in advance that he was leaving Sevilla for PSG in 2016. When explaining why he refused to answer his calls then, the ex-Gunners boss hinted at what led to his compatriot’s exit from Aston Villa.
“Well, I couldn’t tell him, and then one day he called me and said, ‘Look, Marca is saying you’re going to PSG, and when Marca reports it like this…’ And I told him, ‘Damn it, Monchi, I’m really sorry, but I couldn’t tell you, and it’s true they’re going to pay the release clauses, and obviously for me it’s an opportunity, and I have to take it, Monchi’,” he said.
“And then at Arsenal, we even met in London, and I thought he was coming, but he came to Sevilla.”
“And then the next time I was at Aston Villa. I said to him, “Monchi, what’s going on?” I’d read that he was leaving, and he came with me. We worked well and enjoyed each other for two years, but he was also involved with the San Fernando project, which he was very keen on. We also had some difficulties with Financial Fair Play. So, between one thing and another, he said he wasn’t available.”
“We had to sell, and we had a tough time with everything, figuring out how to fix this, and even then, everything worked out, but it was difficult.”
Not ruling out Monchi reunion
The manager won’t rule out working with Monchi for the third time in the future.
“I have a lot of affection for him, and as a professional, I have the utmost respect for him. We’ve worked together twice, almost three times, because, well, even at PSG, I always wanted to work with him,” Unai Emery explained.
“We went our separate ways, then we hired Roberto Olabe, with whom I had worked before. And that’s football. Football is very fluid, very changeable, and well, sometimes it changes because you’re fired, and sometimes it changes because you leave, and it’s better to decide to leave than to be fired.”
