The Spanish technical director Monchi is considering joining Arsenal after leaving Roma. The 50-year-old lasted less than two years at the Serie A club, having left Sevilla in April 2017.
It was at the Spanish club where Monchi worked successfully together with the Arsenal manager, Unai Emery, winning the Europa League three years in succession.
Monchi left Roma on Thursday, the same day Claudio Ranieri, the former Fulham manager, took charge until the end of the season. Ranieri replaced Eusebio Di Francesco, who left after the Champions League defeat by Porto.
Monchi enjoyed enormous success and made his reputation at Sevilla. In 17 years the club made over €300m in player sales at a profit of more than €200m. He identified and signed players such as Dani Alves, Julio Baptista and Seydou Keita cheaply and sold them on for huge profit. He also sold the former youth players Sergio Ramos, José Antonio Reyes and Jesús Navas for almost €75m.
The results of his transfer dealings at Roma have been mixed at best, however. Last summer the club signed Javier Pastore for €30m from Paris Saint-Germain, Patrick Schick from Sampdoria for a deal that could eventually total €42m, Justin Kluivert for €18m from Ajax and Steven Nzonzi from Sevilla for €26.5m.
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There have been some successes, including the midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini, bought back in 2017 from Sassuolo for €10m, teenager Nicolò Zaniolo, who cost just €4m as part of the €38m deal that saw Radja Nainggolan sign for Internazionale in July, winger Cengiz Ünder, bought for €13.4m from the Turkish club Başakşehir in the summer of 2017, and Aleksandar Kolarov, signed from Manchester City for €5m in the same summer.
Roma have had a poor season by their recent standards and are fifth in Serie A, three points behind Internazionzle in Italy’s last Champions League berth. James Pallotta, the club’s American owner, chose this week to make sweeping changes.
