Monchi entered the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán anteroom to applause. Then he went to meet him and the president of the Sevilla Football Club, Pepe Castro, hugged him tightly; José María del Nido Junior, vice president, kissed him on the cheek. “How easy it is to love the one who says goodbye!” wrote Walter Benjamin. “Thank you, Monchi” screen printed on all posters. His companions tucking him in. Víctor Orta, his substitute and apprentice, also near the podium.
“You go through the front door and as you deserve: at home,” the president told him, already in front of the buses. “It has been an excessively hard year. We have all had a very bad time and in which, as in all families, we have had our differences, “he added.. “You will always be one of us,” was his epitaph after a lukewarm and brief farewell.
“I keep thinking that this is a nightmare and that someone is going to come pinch me and tell me that it's not real, that I'm not leaving Sevilla,” Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo started, already with tears in his eyes.. the trembling voice. And he warned: “It is not a farewell, but an appearance, to defend my image and my integrity.” Silence swept the space. “I want to look people in the face when I get out of here.” Emotion gave way to restlessness.
“I didn't want to leave Sevilla, because if I'm leaving it's out of respect for this club, I'm not leaving for money,” he clarified. And question time for the media was opened. «I am a special sports director, for better or for worse, if they don't let me be Monchi, I can't contribute. My role has changed, which are things that happen, but in my case, to be fair to myself, I'd rather not be than be like this, “he was released in the responses. He alluded to one of the reasons for his departure. The club's hierarchy has changed, Junior has assumed a leading role, and the sports area has weakened. «I am good at day-to-day management. And for that I need some weapons, which I have always had, but if I no longer have them, I am no longer me».
«There is another idea in the club. Another way of understanding it. Although no one has told me to go away. The decision has been mine,” he insisted. «I wanted to go to San Fernando to rest. Without the pressure of day to day. But Aston Villa excited me. It is a growing project. And there is Unai Emery, who has encouraged me to go ». The pulsations were lowering. Monchi refused to name names or point to the culprits. He swayed in front of the lectern to calm his nerves. He drank water. He was beginning to feel comfortable. He praised Víctor Orta, who looked at him seriously from the audience. “This is not a person, this is much more,” he said, and pointed to his team, to the sports management area, and there his voice broke. «I need to be a reference. When I started in the year 2000, with our resources, I was ready for everything. For the washing machines that broke and to sign a youth. If I stop being an absolute reference, I am another. And I understand it, that the model is changed. But I've been like this for 24 years, and I'm not going to change. The most comfortable, and unfair, would have been to stay.
“Let no one use these words as a battering ram to bring down anything or anyone,” was his conclusion. And a thank you wrapped in applause. The last two Europa League cups as silent witnesses. A new era begins at Sevilla. A club that is more vertical than horizontal, more organic, less emotional. Monchi has no place in the house that he built. It only remains to wait for the sharp verdict of time.