Jose Maria del Nido commented that Monaco’s purchase of Geoffrey Kondogbia has been against Sevilla’s will, but not criticised the player.
Los Nervionenses last night confirmed that the Ligue 1 outfit had bought out the Frenchman’s contract at its release clause of €20m, ahead of his travelling out to the principality to complete a late summer transfer.
“Since last week we have heard that this was going to happen,” revealed Del Nido to reporters today.
“We considered the possibility and from there we have brought in [Stephane] Mbia, who ultimately comes in to cover the position but who can also play at centre-back.
“Monaco have known that Sevilla had closed its doors. We have referred them to the buyout clause and they have acted as such against the will of Sevilla.
“I would think that there has been no lack of professionalism and I understand that he has been professional.
“The image he presented at Levante [at the weekend] was not that of something on their way out.”
Kondogbia follows Gary Medel, Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo, Antonio Luna, Luis Alberto and Jose Campana out of the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan this summer.
“Events have allowed us to accelerate plans of change that we had established for the medium term.
“The market has indicated that economically at least our team was good, because if it wasn’t, the players would have stayed and we would not have brought in more than €100m.”
Del Nido admitted that Sevilla may dip back into the market for another defender, with summer signing Nico Pareja having recently been ruled out for two months.
“The technical staff are considering whether or not to bring in another centre-back at the last minute. It is still not decided, whilst we will have alternatives for the next 24 or 48 hours.
“There is no decision yet as there is then a break of 15 days and Nico Pareja is improving even faster. The technical staff will decide.”
