Sevilla are not bothered about losing defender Jules Kounde to Barcelona this summer.
The Frenchman who was the first-choice centre-back at Sevilla last season will soon complete his move to Barcelona, ending his three years association with the club.
Kounde is Sevilla’s second defender who is leaving this summer with Diego Carlos already sold to Aston Villa for £26million earlier this summer.
With two of their starting centre-back already off to new clubs this summer, the question on the lips of people is how Sevilla will cope without the duo.
But the prospect of being without Carlos and Kounde for the coming season does not bother Sevilla and their legendary sporting director Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo.
The club chief, who is universally known as ‘Monchi’, has masterminded Sevilla’s inexorable rise towards the pinnacle of Spanish and European football. He is the man behind transfers in and out of the Andalusian side and ahead of the coming season is unconcerned that they have lost two first-team players in one position.
Speaking to Sportsmail, Monchi revealed that Sevilla are prepared for the aftermath of their loss.
“When the two best players leave a team, the challenge to replace them is not easy, but we feel good about this,” Monchi said.
“We really trust [Julen] Lopetegui, our manager, because we sell players but we are sure the players we sign will be better.”
Despite not having the riches of their bigger rivals in La Liga, Sevilla have prepared themselves to outsmart their wealthier rivals.
Off the pitch, Los Nervionenses have assembled a formidable team of 20 bright young analysts and data scientists and put them at the heart of their operation.
“Many years ago, we started to do things differently, but other teams started to do them, too,’ said Monchi.
“We wanted to do something different again and data gives us two main things. It reduces the error factor and the time for decision-making [in recruitment].
“In the past, what we had to do was look at 300 players, but today with data… maybe that is reduced to 30 with the right characteristics and you can watch them all. You reduce the time and you reduce the error.”
One of those players identified by Monchi, and his team is Brazilian defender, Marcao. The 26-year-old has already been signed from Galatasaray for £10m to replace Carlos.
