Monchi says England's Championship is fertile scouting ground for Espanyol
Espanyol sporting director Monchi told BBC Sport on 15 August 2026 that England's Championship is an excellent place to discover talent and one of football's "least understood" competitions. He said his recent time working in England and Espanyol's links to Burnley have shaped a deliberate recruitment focus on that league.
Monchi returned to Spain after a two-year spell as president of football operations at Aston Villa that began in 2023, having previously held sporting director roles at Sevilla and Roma. The 57-year-old Spaniard is now at Barcelona-based Espanyol, a club founded in 1900 that finished 11th in La Liga last season. Espanyol's ownership group, led by Alan Pace, also owns Burnley, creating a direct connection to the English game that Monchi says informs their scouting.
"I think the Championship is one of the least understood competitions," Monchi told BBC Sport, adding that having lived in England and worked with Aston Villa, and now following the competition because of Burnley, he can see there are "some very good players there." He cited Morgan Rogers as an example, noting Rogers joined Aston Villa from Middlesbrough in 2024, went on to become an England international and completed a £117m move to Chelsea this summer. "That is just one example, but I could give many more," Monchi said, describing the Championship as "a competition with an extremely high level of competitiveness, very good coaches and intense demands. It is an excellent place to discover talent."
Espanyol have already recruited from the English second tier: Tyrhys Dolan joined from Blackburn Rovers in July 2025 after five seasons in the Championship, and the club has taken Netherlands international Quilindschy Hartman on loan from Burnley. Monchi framed this strategy as part of a response to financial constraints, saying Spanish clubs operate under La Liga's squad-cost limits while Premier League clubs have considerably greater resources. "We cannot do everything we would like to do, but we do what we can," he said. "It is true that we are at a disadvantage compared with some Spanish clubs, and particularly compared with clubs in England, Italy or Germany. However, we have to be imaginative, work hard and look for alternatives."
Monchi said his two years at Aston Villa altered his view of how a modern club should be organised, praising Villa's separation between sporting and business functions and the club's internal relationships. "There was a very clear distinction between the business side and the sporting side," he said. "There was very good synergy throughout the club, a strong relationship with the ownership and a close connection with the fans." He recalled his most memorable moment in England as Villa qualifying for the Champions League in 2023-24: "After 40 or so years without playing in the Champions League, securing qualification was a beautiful moment." During his time at Villa, the club also reached the semi-finals of the Conference League in his first season, then the FA Cup semi-finals and Champions League quarter-finals in his second campaign.
On recruitment methods, Monchi said clubs now combine traditional scouting with technology. "We no longer rely solely on scouting reports and subjective assessments, but also on the support provided by big data, artificial intelligence and data analysis in general," he said. "All clubs have done, and what I have done personally, is adapt to new technologies." For Espanyol that means pairing data-driven recruitment with market knowledge gathered across Spain, Italy and England to identify players who can raise the club's competitiveness rather than simply being low-cost options.
Monchi urged Espanyol to set internal benchmarks rather than measure themselves against city rivals Barcelona. "Espanyol have to focus on themselves," he said. "Barcelona are a major club and an important team, but I do not think Espanyol's growth should be measured against Barcelona. Espanyol's reference point has to be Espanyol itself." He described ambitions to restore the club to a more prominent historical standing: "Espanyol have enough history and enough of a past for us to look back at what the club has been and try to become that Espanyol again. An Espanyol that was one of the most important clubs in Spain. That is where we have to aim to return."
Monchi set a practical short-term objective for the club: "The ambition is to improve on last season's league position and continue progressing, moving forward one step at a time and consolidating the project," he said, and added that if the Championship continues to produce the kind of players he believes are being overlooked by Spanish clubs, it "could become an important part of the route back."
