His departure from Aston Villa last September was surprising, as he still had the remainder of the season left on his contract and there were no signs of fatigue. Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo “Monchi” (San Fernando, 1968) Immersed in his homeland with … San Fernando 1940, but it is inevitable that he will be linked with Sevilla in the not-too-distant future, depending on who buys the club. Linked to the Sevilla Third Road, the Cádiz native attends ABC de Sevilla without wanting to open that watermelon and confirms that his time in Nervión is over.
How are you?
Comfortable in terms of professional soccer pressure. I am happy to be in my homeland, and to participate in a project that interests me so much. I am grateful to Aston Villa for giving me the opportunity to enjoy the Premier League.
What is the challenge you face in the medium term?
My challenge today is to live a little. After 38 years of professional football, I needed a break, and I never got one. I hope the personal Munchi gets the time from the professional Munchi. Then, enjoy something that started as a utopia and is now a reality: the San Fernando 1940 Athletic Club.
Did fatigue or the San Fernando project come first?
I won’t leave England because I’m tired. There is a series of circumstances, one of which was clearly San Fernando. There was a time when all of us who were involved in the day-to-day life of Aston Villa believed that to continue growing, new blood was needed, and you needed other challenges.
Why isn’t La Liga on the same level as the English Premier League when it comes to managing the transfer market?
There is still a lot to learn from the Prime Minister. In Premier there is also fair play financing. They are probably much more stringent than those here. The Prime Minister doesn’t mess around, if you don’t comply with the rules, they take the points. Years ago, Nottingham, Leicester and Everton suffered from this. Important equipment. Different rules, different standards, but fair play is there. What is happening? I think Premier was creating a very sellable product, which earned him an incredible income from the TV show. On the other hand, in the Premier League they are more open to the entry of foreign capital, and this makes the clubs more powerful. We have to start getting rid of the idea that there is only money in the Premier League. There is already money and talent in the Prime Minister.
“In the Premier League they are more open to the entry of foreign capital, and this makes the clubs more powerful.”
Speaking of the economy, do you think Sevilla is on the right track in its recovery?
I can’t answer this question because I don’t have all the data. I’m not concerned with the income statements, nor with what Sevilla is doing. I imagine the people running the club have tried their best to make it as sustainable as possible. I hope they get it. The only thing I can do from the outside is hope things go as well as possible.
Do you feel any responsibility for this situation?
The only thing I want to look forward to is that if I look back, over the 30 years I spent in Seville, I look at the amount of things that happened. Yes, I can say that I only left behind what I enjoyed and what I experienced. I’m someone who always tries not to look back and when I look I see positive things. There are a lot of achievements that have been achieved and I stand by that. It is clear that in the first period of 17 years, or almost twenty years as Sevilla’s sporting director, it was impossible to do everything well. But there is a newspaper archive. You don’t have to look far to see what’s been done. I think in general it is perceived that Munshi, Munshi’s character, gave more than he was able to take.
“In general, it is seen that Monchi, the character of Monchi, gave more than he was able to ask for at Seville.”
Yes, but there is a lot of talk about planning for the summer of 2022, about contracts, for example, with Nianzo, Marcao, or Januzaj…
It’s very specific things. Do you know how many deals I made in Seville? I will not go into these small details. I will remember that in that season, I won’t forget, we ended up winning the title. The numbers may seem strange to me, but I think we ended up winning a title and qualifying for the Champions League. My last match in Seville was the Europa League final and victory over Roma. He insisted, for many years, that it was impossible to be infallible. I date in Seville. I no longer participate in the present and this history, because the media and the fans are the ones who have to judge. There will be people who think I’m a positive story and there will be people who think I’m negative. I know what I witnessed.
What is the reason behind Victor Orta’s lack of success at Seville?
In professional football, goals are not easy to achieve because there is intense competition. As for Victor, the only thing I can say is that I won’t analyze him. It seems unprofessional for me to do that. It seems to me that Victor is a professional with an important career, he has played in many teams and I believe he is an authority in sports management. If you talk to any sporting director, they always consider him one of the important people in world football. And I stick to that. Then, as I said myself, after many years of experience, there are times when things get better, and sometimes they get worse. But Victor is a professional with a great reputation in the world.
And if you ask him about Cordon…
Antonio is another reference in football, both at Villarreal and at Betis himself, at Monaco… his career there. I don’t have to find out anything. I think that Sevilla, in the field of sports management, is in very good hands.
Would it be a good idea to work with him?
No, we have to start forgetting about Munshi. Professional Monchi is not linked to Sevilla. Munshi is history. We can link Monchi as an amateur to Sevilla, because I am a Sevilla fan, but we should forget about Monchi at the professional level. We have to try to turn the page, and as I said before, Monchi is the history of Sevilla.
“Seville, at the sporting level, is in good hands.”
Although it is linked to the third road of Seville.
Antonio (Lapi) and Fede (Quintero) are friends of mine, they are people with economic and professional capabilities, and they also have the hope that they can work in Seville, and this is the only thing I can say, they did not buy Seville, they still live in Seville, and they did not call me to live in Seville. Right now, I’m not thinking about anything but focusing on daily life in San Fernando.
Will the entry of foreign capital be a solution for Seville?
I can’t go into that if I say that there are clubs in England that have grown thanks to foreign capital, and one of them is Aston Villa. When the current owners bought him, he was in the Championship and today he plays in Europe. But obviously it also depends. I don’t know if they’ll sell it, and I don’t know if there’s a box for it, so I can’t judge. I say that I think the fear of foreign capital entering Seville has now disappeared, but one capital is not the same as the other. The important thing is that the people who can come are capable people who know how to manage.
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