The One About Monchi
Aston Villa's hire of Monchi (Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo) from Sevilla is part-coup, part-next step of Villa's quest to bulldoze their way into Football's top table.
The main discourse regarding the Monchi signing has taken a bit of a turn though. Especially on Twitter where it seems to entirely relate to his performance in a traditional Spanish event. With that in mind, this will be a two-part newsletter with a very obvious split.
Firstly, Villa's hire of Monchi is one of their best ever decisions.
It was very clear that Christian Purslow's attempt to wrangle the football side of Villa was almost an abject failure. For all the good he has done, the decision to hire a fairly-unproven Steven Gerrard and back him to the hilt, almost put Villa back in a near-catastrophic manner. While I am certain they may have slightly improved under him, the form was giving 'relegation in early April' vibes. You have to make a decision, and it's to the credit of Villa's ownership that they cut the Gerrard cord early. It's even more to their credit that they manage to snag Emery as gaffer.
At that point, Emery's status compared to Villa's standing was like comparing my house to the Eiffel Tower - but Nassef Sawiris' pitch to Emery must've been mindblowing.
And now we're seeing the fruits of it. Christian Purslow leaves a completed chapter at Villa (rare for a CEO in these parts) and his role becomes split between two beasts.
Football matters to Monchi - Business to Chris Heck.
In a sense, it's the making of a dream team. What Villa are making off the pitch is very special, and in this off-season it might overshadow any other signings. Before Villa have paid a transfer fee, they are already winning.
It'll take time to put Monchi's structure in place, but it's not like his starting from scratch. It's my opinion that Johan Lange and Rob Mackenzie have performed exceedingly well in the transfer market for the most part; and Villa's database already exists. Monchi will only grease the wheels of a moving machine to an extent that it becomes an unstoppable beast.
That's if everything goes well - but with the freedom to perform, Villa can become something that Brighton and Brentford might end up envying. A giant punching above their own weight? Can you imagine that?
We could end up anywhere. It's quite difficult to speak about what Monchi could do - as this is the first time he has worked in England, but there's an idea that he's the champion underdog, a grafting organiser who won't be put off by the context of where a player comes from if they are genuinely good enough. He's the guy who will rebuild Villa as his own Ship of Theseus - making it ride the waves as it is ripped apart at the seams by the titans of football who will take what they want when they want.
Give it time, relax. It's all in hand. Monchi's at the wheel.
Before we go on - it's probably worth a content warning (A - because you might be affected or offended by it, and B - because you might be bored of The Discourse). We'll be talking about blackface and Monchi's involvement in the Three Kings Festival below this divider.
I love Twitter's new algorithm (I don't, I hate it ). It feeds me all the stuff I want to see (literally every single thing I have zero interest in).
So mostly, today, it has fed me numerous instances of people talking about Monchi and his use of blackface. All of those instances lay in the 'supportive' camp. Elon Musk's Twitter is doing its job.
'What the feck is all this?' you might be thinking.
Well.
One of Monchi's instagram posts from last year resurfaced on Twitter.
Complete context is necessery here.
In the picture below, Monchi had been chosen to perform the role of 'Balthasar' alongside two other 'Kings' for the Three Kings Festival. Here's an explanation of the event from The Independent:
On the night of the 5th of January families gather on the city streets to watch the passing of kings Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar and their entourage of marching bands, light shows, camels, and horses in a grand parade. The parade tradition, which dates to the late 1800s and is rooted in the kings’ visit to the infant Jesus, is a joyous occasion usually followed by feasts and the unwrapping of gifts either at midnight or on the morning after.
It also - for whatever reason - required him to don blackface.
When I see the image above, I wonder about Spain's very real issue with racism (without discounting the fact that such issues exist across the globe, including in the UK).
I don't know if you need it laid out - but why is Blackface bad?
The root argument against blackface is that it is dehumanising. It is used to ridicule and mock. It is sometimes used to 'honor' - sometimes - but that is RARELY the feeling felt by a non-white person who views blackface. A tradition that stemmed from one simple fact - white audiences did not want black people on the stage.
I do think of that when I think of how many Spanish authorities are simply unable to find 1 (one) black person to play the role of Balthasar.
I then think of a few things I have read:
- Spanish Football federation president Luis Rubiales recently said “We have a problem of behavior, of education, of racism and as long as there is one fan or one group of fans making insults based on someone’s sexual orientation or skin color or belief, then we have a serious problem. A serious problem that stains an entire team, an entire fan base and an entire country.”
- In a 2022 survey, 25% of participants (Spanish citizens aged 15-29) were seen to hold racist and xenophobic views.
- Since 2019, hate crime has risen 24% according to authorities.
- Loads of teenagers paint their lips bright red and their skin black during the Three Kings.
- There a good number of accounts of black tourists and black Spanish citizens being disturbed by the whole Three Kings deal.
- There are also a good number of Spanish organisers attempting to change the festival.
I think maybe there's a connection there.
The Three Kings festival is run by various local authorities across Spain. Some - like Madrid - stopped blacking up white people for the role of Balthasar. Others allowed it to continue. It's hardly like Monchi is alone either - Ruud van Nistelrooy and Sergio Ramos have played Balthasar in the past.
Vox's explainer on blackface that I have read a few times in the past decade has a great end point.
Finally, if you really cannot understand what's wrong with with blackface, challenge yourself to figure out what seems so right about it. Leonard suggests that blackface fans ask themselves, "Why do I derive pleasure from this? What's the investment in doing it, and what's the investment in defending it?"
It's up to Spain and festival organisers to ask themselves what the hell they are gaining from this unless the only way they can appreciate their Christianity is to perform blackface. Until then, people who partake in it are going to be judged (fairly and unfairly) by foreign observers.
My opinion? It's irrelevant for reasons that I'll explain at the end of my opinion.
I think it would be wrong to sack Monchi over something like this. Unthinkable. Monchi - by his actions - isn't a racist. However, wearing blackface is - in general - a racist thing to do. So why is my thought unneeded here? Well. People who are genuinely offended/affected by the resurfacing of the photo should be the loudest voices in the room. Instead, it's (mostly) white blokes arguing back and forth. Of course, they are welcome in the conversation (it wouldn't work otherwise), but other voices should become more prominent in times like this. They aren't. So it goes.
I don't think Monchi the man can or should be 'cancelled'. In general, I think Monchi is likely a force for good. I don't think he is a racist.
When Kalidou Koulibaly was racially abused while playing for Napoli, Monchi loudly stood up for him. In his own way.
Aye, he did darken his skin on his Instagram to make that point - 'Although we are of a different colour... we are equal'.
But he was also one of the loudest voices in the room to essentially say 'racism is shit, stop it'. In general, we need more people like that, even if they were doing it rather cackhandedly.
Traditions like Three Kings are emulated across the globe. The Netherlands does 'Black Pete'. Morris Dancers changed their colour to blue from black a little while back (despite the argument that it was coal on their skin, not 'traditional blackface'), Sweetshops in Antwerpen sell black hand chocolates in honour of the time Silvius Brabo smote a giant and dashed his hand in a river - it just so happens that Belgium is also infamous for precisely what it did to the hands of black people in the 1800s. These three things are incredibly different, but they are similar in that they face critique that splashes on the shield of tradition.
People who you wouldn't consider 'racist' partake in this things. Maybe your critical thought engine shouldn't have to be on at all times.
But maybe, there's also a chance for education - and maybe a chance for tradition to change in a manner that both appreciates the past without dehumanising a portion of the population.
I think it's perhaps heavy-handed to go full-guns at Monchi. It's also very silly to wave the hand of tradition and dismiss it. There must be a middle ground without it becoming bullshit fencesitting. There must be discussion with the people most affected.
Listening, then learning. Perhaps we've lost a lot of that?
Monchi's actions are in his past. There's next-to-no-chance he does anything of the sort while representing Aston Villa. That doesn't discount the very real conversation taking place though, and the need to platform people who have more relevant things to say than a pissing contest.