Monchi will fear the worst after hearing how Aston Villa players felt about summer disaster
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(Credit: Imago)
Oliver Walton
Thu 18 September 2025 19:20, UK
Aston Villa’s players feelings on the club’s poor summer window have been outlined and it does not make for good reading for President of Football Operations Monchi or the rest of their board.
Aston Villa continued their impressive rise under Unai Emery in 2024-25 with a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League and forays to a Champions League quarter-final and FA Cup semi-final.
There was an expectation that they would go again in the summer with some big spending to push on again this term, despite some financial concerns as Aston Villa completed a last-minute sale of their women’s team to avoid breaching profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
Emery’s side was barely bolstered until the latter stages of the window, though, with Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott arriving on late loan deals to join Marco Bizot, Evann Guessand and Victor Lindelof as new summer signings.
Guessand was the only big-money move as he arrived from Nice for an initial £26.5m, and the views from some players in the Villans’ squad about the summer window have been revealed, with transfer chief Monchi now under even more pressure.
Credit: Imago
Former footballer Monchi was appointed as Villa’s President of Football Operations in June 2023 after previously holding similar positions on the continent at both Sevilla and Roma.
Villa’s rise over the last few years has been partly thanks to his smart transfer dealings, with a number of top players brought in to help fire them into the Champions League last season.
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Their aforementioned struggles in the summer window have left them short this season, however, and Emery’s side are yet to win a game or even net a league goal so far, with new signing Elliott their only scorer up to now against Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday (16 September).
According to a new report from the Daily Mail, there was “widespread frustration” among the Villa squad at the lack of top-quality signings over the summer, and understandably so, given the small amount of money spent and how they waited until deadline day to get the two loans through the door.
The report also states that some of Emery’s players felt like Jacob Ramsey, who joined Newcastle for £40m last month, was effectively pushed out of the club to pay the bills regarding PSR and financial fair play.
Club captain John McGinn posted a cryptic message about Ramsey’s exit at the time, admitting it was a “sad day” but remonstrating that “it seems to be the way football is set up these days.”
All of this has created a perfect storm for the Villans right now, with a number of players clearly unhappy at what has gone on off the pitch, and then seemingly transferring that annoyance onto the pitch with poor performances and a lack of team spirit.
Monchi has a lot to answer for in terms of the summer window and how it went so badly wrong, but his main issue is that he cannot rectify it anytime soon with another two-and-a-half months until they can buy or loan in new players again in January.
Villa fans must remember that it is still early days in the season and there is a long way to go for them to improve and mount yet another top six challenge in the Premier League, as well as to potentially impress in the Europa League too.
It’s not as if they don’t have the squad to do just that, with the core of last season’s impressive team still at the club after Ramsey was their only high-profile sale during the summer window.
Ramsey joined Newcastle from Villa in August (Credit Imago)
Morgan Rogers garnered serious interest from Chelsea and Ollie Watkins was wanted by a number of teams in the top-flight, but they were able to keep hold of their key men and the rest of their squad ahead of the new season.
Their upcoming fixtures look more kind to them on paper than their first few, with a league game at newly-promoted Sunderland, a Europa League tie at home to Bologna and then a league clash at Villa Park against Fulham before they face Feyenoord and then Burnley on 5 October.
Emery’s side need to impress in each of those outings to prove that they are up to the task this season, and they should be confident of bouncing back from their poor start with the likes of Elliott and Sancho getting up to speed and Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara all still to come back from injury.