'Whirlwind' - Monchi reveals why he is happy Aston Villa is nothing like Sevilla
Monchi is loving his work at Aston Villa, 18 months on from joining the club from his beloved Sevilla - and the president of football operations particularly enjoys the lower profile he's able to keep in Birmingham. Monchi left Sevilla to move to Villa in the summer of 2023, having previously worked - and enjoyed great success - with Unai Emery in Spain.
Monchi, a former Sevilla player, took up the role of sporting director in 2000 when he was only 31 years old. Over that extensive period of time - and discounting only a couple of years when he left for Roma before returning to Sevilla - he developed a reputation for identifying and recruiting unpolished talents which earned his club hundreds of millions in profits.
The former goalkeeper was naturally of a high profile in Andalusia, but upon leaving behind a famous and proud body of work to reunite with Emery and kickstart a new project at Villa, Monchi has enjoyed the shift in how he leads his life in England. There isn't quite the same exposure as at home - although he admits it's growing - but that suits Monchi just fine. He simply focuses on his work.
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"Here, obviously the circumstances are different [to Sevilla], because I don't have that position," Monchi told DAZN. "There is a parapet in front of me, which is Unai, 'the boss', and that allows me to focus much more on my day-to-day work, to specify my role much more, with the same demands, the same nerves, with the same responsibility, because my demands are the greatest there are, that hasn't changed at all.
"I enjoy the victories and suffer the defeats equally, because I am very demanding with myself and, as a challenge as coming to England has been, once you get into the whirlwind, you try to achieve the maximum. Within the sporting aspect, that is, what is another series of circumstances that I managed in Seville, here I don't have to do it, and that allows me greater peace of mind.
"My public position is much less. Here I can go out on the street without anyone telling me that I have to sign a striker, although that is changing. I was saying that a year ago, but now they are getting to know me better... but it is nothing like what I experienced in Seville, or in Rome, where the level of demand on a day-to-day basis was also very high.
"Here I have found a place where I can work happily, with a high level of demand, which Unai sets, but I also set it and the owner sets it, but from a much more secondary perspective."
