AS Roma president Jim Pallotta today reacted with surprise to comments made by former Sporting Director Monchi at a press conference to announce his return to Sevilla.

“The president wanted to go to the right; I wanted to go to the left,” Monchi, who left Roma 10 days ago, told reporters in Spain.

“I was kind of surprised to read Monchi say at his press conference that he wanted to go one way and I wanted to go another way," Pallotta said.

“I appreciate that Monchi never set out to fail at Roma but I want to make something very clear; right from the start, I was very clear about the direction I wanted us to go in and that’s why we spent a lot of money bringing Monchi in.

“From the start, I said I wanted first class coaches, first class performance staff, first class medical staff, first class scouting and recruitment and a first class football organisation. I gave Monchi the keys to deliver that. I gave him 100% control to appoint the coach he wanted, to employ the assistant coaches and the performance staff, to manage the scouting and to bring in the players he wanted. If you look at our results and our performances, it’s clear that this hasn’t worked.

“In November, when our season was going from bad to worse and everyone could see that the coach was struggling to get a reaction out of the players, I asked Monchi for his Plan B should things continue to get worse. He had sole responsibility for football operations at Roma but he didn’t have a Plan B. That was November. He said his Plan B was just to keep doing the same as Plan A.

“So, if I read or listen to the radio interviews he’s giving where he says that the idea of the ownership was different to his and that is why he left, please let me know what Monchi wanted to do differently? He asked me to trust him and let him do it his way. We gave him complete control and now we have more injuries than we’ve ever had and are in danger of missing out on finishing in the Top 3 for the first time since 2014.”