Monchi: ‘Roma flop was 95 per cent my fault’

Sevilla director Monchi prepares to face his old club in the Europa League Final and fully admits his flop at Roma was ’95 per cent my fault.’

They will go head-to-head for the silverware in Budapest on May 31, a showdown that has extra spice considering Monchi’s short-lived and ill-fated spell as general manager of Roma.

That lasted from April 2017 to March 2019, when he returned to Sevilla, a club he had already been at from 2000 to 2017.

“I will always be grateful to Jim Pallotta for bringing me to Roma, which is a bigger club than people realise from outside Italy. You will never hear me speak ill of him or the other people who worked with me during that period,” Monchi told the Corriere dello Sport.

Among the regrets that he has from that time is the decision to sack coach Eusebio Di Francesco in March 2019, not long after he had taken them to the Champions League semi-final.

“I thought Eusebio deserved to see out the season. He was coming off that incredible achievement against Barcelona and had accepted the sales of important players ordered by the club, such as Mohamed Salah, Antonio Rudiger, Leandro Paredes and Mario Rui.

“I believe he only needed to regain some self-confidence. The club owners had other ideas, so I thought it best for me to leave the role to someone else. Di Francesco wasn’t the only reason behind my departure, we simply were no longer in sync.”

However, Monchi doesn’t pin the blame on the patron Pallotta for that lack of understanding, quite the opposite.

“It’s my fault, at least 95 per cent of it was my fault. It would be easy for me now to say I wasn’t allowed to work the way I wanted to, but that wouldn’t be the truth. I won’t get into the details, I ask myself if Pastore or other signings weren’t right, but I won’t focus on the individuals.

“I can only say that I got it wrong and was unable to meet the expectations I had set for myself.”

Monchi is still deeply unpopular amongst Roma fans for some of his expensive signings that proved to be flops, such as Patrik Schick, Javier Pastore, Rick Karsdorp, Cengiz Under, Justin Kluivert, Robin Olsen and Steven Nzonzi.