Arsenal confident of agreeing deal to appoint Monchi as new technical director

The AS Roma director of football is being eyed as a replacement for Sven Mislintat

Arsenal are reportedly growing in confidence regarding a deal to bring AS Roma director of football Monchi to the club as a replacement for departed head of recruitment Sven Mislintat. Monchi - full name Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo - only signed a four-year deal with the Serie A side in April 2017, after a 17-year spell at the club with which he spent his entire playing career, Sevilla. It was at the LaLiga side that the former goalkeeper built one of the best reputations in professional football for finding quality players at an affordable price. As part of the setup he created within the club, Sevilla brought through or unearthed a number of players including Diego Capel, Alberto Moreno, Jesús Navas, Antonio Puerta, Sergio Ramos, José Antonio Reyes, Adriano, Dani Alves, Júlio Baptista, Federico Fazio, Seydou Keita and Ivan Rakitić. The vast majority of those players were spotted by one of the club's network of 700 worldwide scouts, before being acquired for a relatively small fee. A number of them would go on to be sold for significantly higher sums after helping the club achieve success. Since joining Roma in 2017, he has recruited young players such as Cengiz Under, Patrick Schick and Justin Kluivert to the club, with varying success. Should the Gunners succeed in their quest to appoint him it would be viewed as something of a coup, especially given the success that Monchi and Arsenal manager Unai Emery enjoyed during their time working together at Sevilla, winning three successive Europe League trophies in 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. According to a report in The Independent, Emery has named Monchi as the man he would like to see replace the German.