After a tumultuous summer and a stuttering, underwhelming start to their 2025/26 Premier League season, Aston Villa sporting director Monchi is set to depart the club.
After three years of nothing but positivity within the club, the 2025/26 Premier League season has so far seen everything good about the club under Unai Emery collapse.
Having failed to win a single match in all competitions thus far, Aston Villa have managed just one league goal in their opening five matches, a solitary score against 10-man newly promoted Sunderland.
Many have speculated how this drastic drop off has happened to a side who won eight of their final 10 league matches last season, just narrowly missing out on back-to-back UEFA Champions League qualifications.
Having joined the club in 2023, former Roma and Sevilla sporting director Monchi left behind a strong legacy in the transfer market and was a key factor behind the Spanish side's three-peat of Europa League triumphs.
With a proven track record of succeeding on a low budget, the Spaniard seemed the perfect man to help Villa navigate the stifling PSR and UEFA SCR rules that had so far stunted spending in the market.
However, through potentially poor decisions and financial mismanagement, Aston Villa have found themselves with a squad that some may claim is worse than the one which Monchi inherited at the club, something reminiscent of his time at Roma.
Amongst those at the Serie A side, his name brings back bad memories, being responsible for the sales and poor replacements of Alisson, Mohamed Salah, Leandro Paredes, Antonio Rudiger and Radja Nainggolan, among others, replacing them with names like Robin Olsen, Stephen Nzonzi and Javier Pastore.
All of these players failed to live up to expectation and a Roma side, who had made the UEFA Champions League semi-finals the season before, was dismantled and has not recovered to those same levels since.
Sound familiar?
Quarter-finalists of last season's UEFA Champions League, Aston Villa have seen several high profile outgoings since Monchi's appointment, with Douglas Luiz, Moussa Diaby, Jhon Duran, Leon Bailey, Jacob Ramsey and Diego Carlos all departing, not to mention the fact that Emiliano Martinez, Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers were heavily linked with departures this summer.
The jury is still out on signings Evann Guessand, Donyell Malen, Victor Lindelof, Ian Maatsen and Amadou Onana, whilst problem positions - such as right back - have still not been properly addressed in the transfer market.
With those transfers in mind, it makes it difficult to make a case that the Spaniard has been a success within the club, with European qualification being accredited more to Emery than to Monchi within Villa circles.
Poor recruitment is laid bare when you take a look at the Villans' line-ups this season, with only two Emery signings - Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers - starting their 0-0 draw with Everton in round four of the Premier League.
For context, there is only one more Emery signing in that line-up than players signed by former manager Steve Bruce whilst they were a Championship side.
There were also question marks over the Spaniard's commitment among fans this summer, with Monchi spending a significant amount of time over in his homeland attempting to save his local club from administration.
It's easy to forget that the former Roma director wasn't the first choice to take over as sporting director at the club, with with fellow Spanish native Mateu Alemany looking set to take over at the club, only to get cold feet and remain at Barcelona.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the former Sevilla director looks set to be the first head to roll due to the poor start to the season and the ill feeling in general around the club at the moment.
Whilst the speculation and debate around his departure will reign on among fans and neutrals alike, attention for the club will now turn to appointing a replacement.
