Monchi has revealed Sevilla came close to signing Nigel De Jong, Robin Van Persie and Marcelo before they all decided upon moves elsewhere.
The sporting director has made 151 signings across 17 years in his position as sporting director at Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan, a role he will be leaving in May.
“Yes there are a number of signings who we came very close to but ended up elsewhere,” Monchi replied when asked who his biggest near-misses where as sporting director on El Larguero.
“Nigel De Jong was in Seville and familiarising himself with the city, and his representatives were telling me how keen he was to sign but when I turned up for the meeting, I was told they had already agreed to go to Hamburg.
“Robin van Persie was another – I went to Rotterdam to finalise the deal but during my stay he got a call from Arsenal who’s offer was bigger and he went from there.
“Marcelo was a near miss too – we were in advanced negotiations but he ended up at Real Madrid.
“My best signing? Dani Alves. He was unknown before he joined us and he needed time to adapt, but he gave up everything to succeed. He gave us titles and was sold for 45 times the price we signed him for.
“It’s also fair to mention "Andres (Palop), Kanoute, Rakitic, Banega, Gameiro, Bacca, Poulsen, Renato…"
