'Monchi' joins Unai Emery at Aston Villa
A rampant lion is drawn on the Aston Villa shield. With outstretched claws. Menacing and fierce. Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo 'Monchi' (San Fernando, Cádiz; 1968) is nicknamed the lion and he will spend at least the next season in Birmingham. On the bench of Los Villanos, an old friend: Unai Emery. On the pitch, one of those revalued players that the sports director caught in the French league: the center-back Diego Carlos. Soccer is a kind of reunion. The lions overlap. Clubs pass, but dignity always remains.
Monchi leaves Sevilla through the back door. It is a thankless sport where power devours everything in its path. The differences with José Castro and, above all, with Vice President José María del Nido Junior, have been irreconcilable. The general sports director has come to feel ignored and bypassed in a club in Tenguerengue, lost in internal battles, and where football has been in the background throughout the season. The seventh continental cup, the Europa League won against AS Roma in Budapest, has served to soothe the pain, but not to heal the wound.
The bad planning of the squad in summer, due to interference and economic adjustments, left the sports director very touched. The club flirted with relegation and the man from Cádiz assumed full responsibility. Behind, troubled decisions and not consulted with the sports management, whims, such as the return of Jorge Sampaoli, and a cooling of relations between offices and the pitch that were detrimental to the entity. The dismissal of Lopetegui, contrary to the opinion of Monchi, who asked for more patience and serenity when heading off his project, was the beginning of the end. When everyone thinks they know about soccer, soccer falls into vulgarity; It is the echo in the offices of many clubs.
an awkward ending
The architect of the professionalization and successes of Sevilla FC is leaving. With him at the controls, assumed in the Second Division, in the year 2000, Sevilla won eleven titles. Two Copas del Rey, one Spanish Super Cup, seven Europa Leagues and one European Super Cup. Eindhoven, Glasgow, Turin, Warsaw, Basel, Cologne and Budapest. Nervionenses fans recite the cities by heart. A handful of footballers, many of them complete strangers, who took the Andalusian club to heaven. “Monchi's miracles”, the press repeated, when Baptista, Keita or Rakitic packed their bags, filling the coffers of Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán.
But football has no memory. After some very tough negotiations, after disagreements and half-truths, Monchi leaves, even paying part of the money that Aston Villa must pay to Sevilla for taking their sports director out of pocket.. In principle, the presidency opened the exit door for him, then he backed down and ended up scratching something in the transfer. It has been an uncomfortable, unexpected end and where something has been broken, perhaps forever, in the heart of León, who is living the last hours in the club surrounded by his own, his sports management team, those who were witnesses of their joys and their worries. That Italian adventure was different, in 2017, where he left acclaimed and returned stomping on palms, olive trees and laurel. Here seems to end a cycle. Endings don't always turn into see you soon.
The English team, which finished seventh in the Premier League, will play in the Conference League next season. The wine and light blue will replace the usual white and red. Monchi starts from scratch. There he will not be the leader he is in Nervión, but a worker, an employee who has yet to prove his work. This has been expressed in confidence. He does it hurt, but with enthusiasm for the new challenges. The fans will have to look for him in Gol Norte, in that Sánchez-Pizjuán who has chanted his name so many times. Not all love stories have happy endings. “Time will put things in their place”, almost everyone will think, but dignity and decorum are not listed on Transfermarkt. They are more subtle values. The lion leaves and goes rampant, with its claws open, and its gaze forward. And proud of his work, because humility is not incompatible with success. And whoever doubts, will think, can take a walk through the trophy room, because in those showcases everything is perfectly explained.