Sevilla vice-president José María del Nido Carrasco has again insisted Monchi tried to join Aston Villa for free.
The Andalusian club won the Europa League last season and days after the final, the sporting director wanted to leave them. The Spaniard had initially informed Sevilla that he wanted to take a break and requested they release him.
Monchi’s request was denied by the La Liga side, who finally allowed him to join Aston Villa in June, after they agreed to pay his release clause plus additional compensation.
Sevilla had a shareholders meeting on Monday, where their officials were asked why they decided to let the director go. Del Nido, relayed by Estadio Deportivo, said Monchi wasn’t sacked at Sevilla and even revealed what went behind the scenes with him in the summer.
“We are all tremendously grateful to him, but no one fired Monchi. After winning the Europa League, we had a management committee to which he brought his planning and where he told Pepe [Castro] and me that he wanted to go to rest and that he wanted to be released from the exit clause,” he said.
Del Nido has revealed that he and other Sevilla officials came to know about Aston Villa’s interest through the media.
“Along the way, it came out in ‘Marca’ that Aston Villa were interested in him. We asked him if that was true. He said yes and we told him that we should collect the €2.5m and the two months’ notice as a penalty,” De Nido explained.
“Then, I received a call from someone at Aston Villa, who told me that, according to Monchi, we were going to forgive that amount.”
According to the Sevilla vice-president, their refusal to allow Monchi to go for free hasn’t pleased him since it has impacted his current salary at Villa Park.
“We told him no, and then they proceeded to subtract that compensation from his future salary, and that’s where his anger comes from, I imagine. We have not forgiven [any fee] anything,” he added.
Monchi and Unai Emery have played a role in helping Aston Villa enjoy a good season so far, and they’re currently fourth in the table, trailing leaders Arsenal by four points.
