Monchi lifts the lid on ‘top player’ Marcus Rashford transfer talks after Aston Villa exit

Former Aston Villa transfer chief Monchi has revealed the impact of manager Unai Emery on talks with Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford.

Rashford joined Villa on loan in the January transfer window and did enough in a Villa shirt to jump from being unwanted by Ruben Amorim and United to being a viable target for Barcelona. The Catalan giants brought him in on loan in the summer window.

Villa benefited from the addition of Rashford, who made a crucial difference in games in the Premier League and FA Cup before a headline performance against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

PSG were beaten 3-2 in the second leg of the quarter-final at Villa Park but went through on aggregate. Rashford’s effect on Villa’s comeback attempt in that tie stuck out like a sore thumb.

Though Villa and Rashford soon looked destined to be a short partnership, the club’s former president of football operations has given some insight into how the January loan move came about.

“Unai, when he had a conversation with Marcus, already told him: ‘Look, Marcus, I’m sure about you. We are going to give you the opportunity to play in the Premier League’,” Monchi told Flashscore via the Birmingham Mail.

“He was able to transmit to him everything that Marcus needed to hear. And the best thing is that it came true, that’s important. Marcus is a player with an enviable technical and physical level, a top player.”

Monchi described Emery as ‘the key’ in getting the Rashford loan over the line and said it was a similar situation for Marco Asensio, who joined on loan from PSG.

“He was also a player that Unai has always wanted to have; in fact, before I arrived, they had been very close, before he left for Paris Saint-Germain,” Monchi said.

“It’s a player profile that Unai likes a lot, that number 10 who can play between the lines, who can unite the team, who has an inside pass, who has a goal. And well, between all of that, I think we convinced him.”

Villa’s January loanees

Axel Disasi didn’t have the same level of success but Villa’s bold loan signings in January, signings they’d surely have preferred not to have to make in lieu of permanent acquisitions, certainly paid off.

Rashford played 17 times for Villa in all competitions, scoring four times and having a big influence in several matches.

Asensio scored eight goals in one brilliant run during his 21 appearances on loan last season, three of them in four Champions League matches. A move back to Villa appeared to be a possibility in the transfer window but the Spanish international landed instead at Fenerbahçe.

Monchi and Villa used the loan market again on transfer deadline day. Rashford’s United teammate Jadon Sancho arrived from Old Trafford for the season and Harvey Elliott was signed from Liverpool on a deal that should result in the triggering of an obligation to buy in June.

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