After terminating his contract with Roma, renowned football director Monchi is expected to join Arsenal as their technical director this summer.
Arsenal’s post-Wenger shakeup continues to write new chapters, as the search for a new technical director ensues. Former head of recruitment Sven Mislintat was reportedly upset at the Arsenal hierarchy not considering him for the position, and he therefore left the club early last month. While the likes of Edu and Marc Overmars, both former Gunners, were linked with the position, it now seems that former Roma and Sevilla director Monchi is in prime position to take up the position.
Monchi’s career as a director has been extremely successful, most notably at Sevilla where he spent 16 years in the position following his retirement from football. Monchi was the mastermind behind the rise of players such as Dani Alves, Ivan Rakitic, and Jose Antonio Reyes, and therefore earned himself the title of ‘best director of football in the world’.
His move to Roma however, has not reaped the same rewards. Monchi has often been criticized in the past few years for some uncharacteristically poor business, including deals for underwhelming players like Javier Pastore, Robin Olsen, and Davide Santon. Roma have been extremely poor this season, and Monchi built an extremely unbalanced squad which was likely the reason for the mutual contract termination.
According to reports, Monchi is considering an offer from Arsenal and is expected to become their technical director sometime in the summer. It is also reported that PSG are interested in his services, although these rumours are not gaining too much traction.
Monchi worked in a relatively successful tandem with current Arsenal manager Unai Emery earlier this decade, as the duo won 3-consecutive Europa League’s together. Despite this, they came up short of expectations in La Liga and the Champions League together.
Monchi’s career has been based off of buying players for cheap and selling them on for profit in later years. This is not the type of club Arsenal want to be however, if they still have the ambition of getting back to the top. Monchi will need to have a different approach to his job if he is to succeed at Arsenal, who have bigger long-term goals than both Roma and Sevilla.
All in all though, this would be an exciting hire for Arsenal, who continue to put the pieces of their club structure in place following the significant departures of Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, and Sven Mislintat. There are no bigger names in the world of directors than Monchi, and he could certainly get the job done for the Gunners in the future, as they build their reputation back up.