Who Is Garry Monk?
Who Is Garry Monk?
A look at our new manager through the eyes of his previous fanbases
The Garry Monk era kicked off on Saturday with a point against Northampton Town at the Abbey. As any U’s fan will tell you, the club’s third permanent manager this season has a tough task ahead of him; turning around our awful form to keep us away from the red line come April, with one of the hardest run-ins of the relegation scrap in store.
But who is Garry Monk? He’s a name that a lot of people might remember from his playing days and his lengthy experience as a player and then a manager in the Premier League. But what’s the story that led him to the Abbey? What do fans at other previous clubs that he’s managed think of him? We asked a selection of dedicated club podcasters and writers that once called him their own gaffer what they thought of him and how his reign looked at their place, to see if it would give United fans any clues as to what to expect for this season and beyond.
Swansea City: February 2014-December 2015
P77 W28 D17 L32 Win% 36.36
After 220 appearances as a player, seeing the Swans go from League Two all the way through to the Premier League, Monk was appointed as player-manager following the sacking of Michael Laudrup. Swansea were sitting 12th, but only two points above the drop. His first game was the small matter of a South Wales derby against Cardiff, with Monk leading them to a famous 3-0 win. Having progressed in the Europa League, Monk’s introduction to management was a baptism of fire when he was tasked with facing Rafa Benitez’s Napoli in the Round of 32, where they eventually bowed out of the competition.
The next season, Monk created history for Swansea, finishing 8th in the Premier League with a record points tally, doing the double over Arsenal and United on the way. This was to be his highest point (so far) as a manager, and also start the club’s eventual decline back to Championship mediocrity. The season after, after one win in eleven games, Monk was sacked in December ending a twelve year association with a club where he is still rightly regarded as a legend. The biggest disappointment for Swansea fans was the change in the style of play that they hold so dearly, with Monk seemingly happy to go for something ‘uglier’ or more attritional to get results.
Here’s what Swans Cast Podcast made of his time there:
Garry Monk will be a name that brings back both incredible and disastrous memories for Swansea fans. Monk was at the Swans for 10 years as a player for our rise through the football leagues to the top flight. He was a mainstay in defence in the Swans' time in League 1 and the Championship, being widely credited by much of the fan base with making the greatest block in the club’s history, lunging to prevent a tap in for Reading in the 2011 Championship play-off final to prevent a three goal comeback. I still wonder to this day how he pulled it off.
Monk ultimately retired as a player and took caretaker charge of Swansea in the 2013/14 season. He would consolidate the Swans in the premier league that season, before guiding us to an 8th place finish with 56 points the following year, the best performance that the Swans had in their 7-year Premier League stay, outperforming managers such as Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup. Unfortunately, whilst Monk did achieve in the short-term, he is also credited by some as being the manager that set the Swans down a slippery slope. As a centre back, Garry Monk has publicly stated that he sets his teams out to prioritise defence above all else, and builds off this foundation to win football matches. This ideology saw the Swansealona style of play that we had made famous begin to erode away, and towards the end of Monk's time in charge of the Swans, we looked a shell of our former selves.
Monk was sacked in the February of the 2015/16 season, with the Swans in a relegation battle. The Swans survived that season, but then saw two more years of firefighting before sleepwalking into the second tier, where we have remained to this day. Many forget that Monk was only 33 years old when taking over as caretaker, and so despite having over 250 games in managerial charge in the top two divisions of English football, at only 45 he is still a young manager. Although he struggled in some of his most recent roles, these are problem clubs that many managers with prior success have tried and failed to revitalise.
Cambridge fans shouldn't expect pretty football, but he is a well respected manager with a wealth of experience, and by now will have a decent contact book for recruitment heading into the summer. I do however hope that he has been improving his knowledge and ability in the time he was unemployed, as football has probably moved on significantly in the three and half years since his sacking at Sheffield Wednesday.
And here’s what Carwyn from Only Swans had to say of Monk’s appointment at the U’s:
Very much a phenomenal appointment for League One. He’s had a while out of the game but to me he always looked like he’d be a solid Championship manager. His time at Swansea might be looked on a bit sourly in the end due to him changing our style of play and beginning our downward trajectory, but if you look at the facts he’ll always be the manager who got us our highest league finish after stepping in at a tough time so I can’t really fault him.
I think he’ll do well, he’s taken a while out, maybe tweaked his game a bit, and it will certainly be fun to take a look at from a neutral’s perspective.
Leeds United: June 2016-May 2017
P53 W25 D11 L17 Win% 47.17
In the summer of 2016, Monk was appointed head coach at Leeds on a one-year rolling contract, remarkably replacing all round lovable cartoon character and current Stevenage manager Steve Evans. With expectations always high at Leeds despite a really poor few years for the club, Monk was largely successful through the vast majority of his one season at Elland Road. They reached the quarter final of the EFL Cup, and occupied the play-off positions for nearly all of the season. It was only a monumental loss of form in the final 8 games that meant they remarkably dropped out of the play-off spots on the final day.
That summer, Leeds were taken over by Andrea Radrizzani, and were ready to activate Monk’s one-year contract extension with the option of exploring a longer-term deal. But Monk, seemingly out of the blue, resigned.
Renowned Leeds United author Rocco Dean tells us what Leeds fans make of Monk’s one season at the club:
Although Garry Monk splits opinion at Elland Road, nobody can deny the excellent job he did. He transformed a bottom half team into promotion contenders, reunited players and fans, and brought pride to the club after some terrible years since promotion from League One six years earlier.
Monk built from the back, as any good manager should, and I loved his team. They were dogged and hard to beat, but lacked quality in the final third. This resulted in a late season collapse and 7th placed finish, but while some fans lambasted the weaknesses, I appreciated that sorting out Leeds United was a massive job and great progress had been made.
His departure at the end of the season was controversial. He jumped ship to Middlesbrough apparently because they had a bigger transfer budget having been relegated the previous season, but I find this hard to believe. Radrizzani had taken ownership from Cellino and I feel Monk would have stayed at Leeds if the circumstances were right. Regardless, he gave us Pablo Hernandez, and set us back on the right track, arguably building the foundations that Marcelo Bielsa's great team was built upon.
Middlesbrough: June 2017-December 2017
P26 W12 D5 L9 Win% 46.15
A few weeks after departing Leeds, Monk was announced as manager of newly relegated Middlesbrough. His statement on joining was to have them immediately back in the Premier League, setting his stall out early. A busy flurry of signings in the summer followed (perhaps reflecting what Rocco mentioned above), but his team never really lived up to the billing.
Despite sitting 9th and just three points outside the play-off places, Monk was sacked in December and replaced by Tony Pulis. Some quite troubling allegations from Boro ended up coming out, claiming that he was not protecting the business interests of the club by paying too much for players knowing his agent would get a larger slice. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on any part by any of the players, and Monk fervently denied all allegations. But clearly, him and Boro weren’t a good fit, and no amount of ‘decent enough win percentage’ can make up for that.
The Boro Breakdown Podcast summed up a short-lived and fairly tumultuous spell in the North East for us:
Monk is not a very popular figure up here in Middlesbrough. We were all very happy with the appointment when it was made as we’d lured him away from Leeds, and he oversaw a transfer window in which our spending was high (including signings such as Britt Assombalonga and Martin Braithwaite) and expectations as a result were even higher.
From this point it’s fair to say we underperformed up until the point he was sacked. While he was manager his interviews and tweets were bland and samey, earning him the nickname “MonkBot” by some fans. Tactically it never looked like we had a specific style and we didn’t even look particularly solid in most of the games we won. So it’s going to be interesting to see if Monk’s approach has developed in his time away from the game.
Birmingham City: March 2018-June 2019
P59 W19 D20 L20 Win% 32.20
Again, Monk didn’t spend long out of the game before finding his next role. But this is the role which should be of particular interest to United fans. When he’s talked about wanting a stable ownership structure in his first press conferences since joining, you can read ‘Birmingham City’ between the lines. He signed as Blues’ fifth permanent manager in 15 months, with exactly 11 games of the season to go and three points adrift from safety - add in terrible goal difference and having played a game more than most around them, they were in big trouble.
The turnaround was remarkable, winning five of eleven games including beating promotion-chasing Fulham on the final day to finish 19th. In his interview after that game, his Wikipedia page reads that he:
…insisted that the habitual struggle against relegation was unacceptable, he would be "relentless" in raising the mentality throughout the club, and "whoever is not on board with that won't be here.”
This will be music to many U’s fans’ ears with the prospect of heavy turnover whatever division we’re in this summer.
The next season, Monk was forced to operate under financial constraints imposed by the EFL including only being allowed to sign up to five loans or free transfers, and only one player on a fee. They outperformed all expectations and spent most of that season in the top half of the table, until a nine-point deduction had them back in a relegation battle. They ended up easing out of that to eventually finish 17th.
That summer, his relationship with the owner soured beyond repair and he was eventually sacked. It’s a further example of why the stability at United is clearly very important to him, and was a huge part in him deciding on his next job. As he said himself when leaving Brum:
“Everybody at the club must be sharing the same vision and commitment to the plans and processes.”
The Birmingham City fanpage You Blues spoke glowingly of Monk’s time there:
It felt like we’d all seen it before. A new man stepped through the doors in the closing months of the season and we welcomed in our 5th manager in just over 15 months. Impressive spells at Swansea and Leeds meant Monk was welcomed with open arms. We couldn’t wait to see the inevitable downfall of Steve Cotterill!
18 months in charge and 59 games managed left Blues with; 19 Wins, 20 Draws and 20 Defeats. On paper it doesn’t look like an impressive tenure. But that doesn’t show you the FFP sanctions Blues were hit with - a 9 point deduction - and the fact we could only sign free agents and loanees (that weren’t too costly)! That’s no easy ship to sail in a competitive 2018/19 Championship.
Monk understood Blues. He was the first man since Gary Rowett to get us backing the club again. I should imagine he’ll get the U’s dreaming of what could be. It’s widely reported online what happened between Monk and Birmingham days before he left the club. A sour taste in our mouths and no love was lost as he became a league rivals’ manager a few weeks later.
I think all Bluenoses will agree if given a solid ownership to work alongside (like the ones we have now) Blues could’ve, might’ve or should’ve dared to dream.
Sheffield Wednesday: September 2019-November 2020
P58 W18 D15 L25 Win% 31.03
Monk was appointed manager at Hillsborough in September of 2019, replacing Steve Bruce who had resigned a few months prior. On the face of it, it says a lot about the way a club is being run to hire a manager a month into a new season and nine days after the transfer window has shut. Not exactly the best footing to start on. He won two of his first three games in charge, and despite being 3rd at Christmas, ended up finishing 16th in that first Covid-hit season.
The next year, with the club looking at a twelve-point deduction (later reduced to six) and with question marks starting to appear around Chansiri’s running of the club, Monk only managed three wins from their first eleven games, leaving them second-bottom of the league when he was sacked. And, interestingly, once again replaced by Tony Pulis.
The Wednesday ‘Til I Die Podcast summed up their feelings on his fairly unremarkable time in South Yorkshire:
Dull is probably the word I’d use to describe his time here. In hindsight, when he arrived back in 2019, the club was at the start of its decline and it was in a bit of a mess really. But we did make a good start under Monk. We were 3rd in the Championship at Christmas that year. We then conceded twice in injury time on Boxing Day to lose 3-2 to Stoke, and then the wheels well and truly fell off. From that point on we only won three more games all season.
After that season, the writing was on the wall. We didn’t get off to a good start, and between there and him getting sacked, people now look back on that period as some real dark days for the club. He didn’t really take the club forward, but like I said some of that you have to attribute to the way the club was being run, the full extent of which only came out a bit later down the line.
The football that we played wasn’t very enamouring, and from the days of Carvajal our expectations were higher than what Monk achieved. I wish him all the best and I hope he does well, but as a manager what I would say is he doesn’t excite me.
A few other Wednesday season ticket holders also shared their thoughts:
Started out by carrying on the good work under Bruce and the squad was on a hell of a roll up until Xmas of 2019. Then Stoke away happened, and that sadly was when the wheels came off for him and us. Brentford away we got taught a real lesson (the last game pre-Covid) and his reaction was telling that day. Fans turned on him with people calling for his head.
We limped to a bottom half finish under him. The recruitment the following summer wasn’t bad on paper with the exception of Izzy Brown who to be fair to him had a hell of a season the previous year with Luton. The retained list really hurt, e.g. Kieran Lee. He never struck me as being “up for the fight” of a points deduction and subsequently lost his job after a poor start.
Looking back at that squad he should have got more out of it in the Covid season to begin with and put us in a fucking snookered position, not entirely his fault but he just had no idea how to stop the rot. Clearly had a lot to manage with players not being paid on time etc. from above. He has been on record since saying he shouldn’t have taken the job and it was very much a reaction to getting the boot at Birmingham city for Pep Clotet. Always struck me as a bit of a nothing manager in that revolving door period we had.
It’s fair to say there’s a mixed bag in here. Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough fans especially giving fairly critical reviews of his time there, while for some successful periods at Leeds, Swansea and Birmingham their fans will always remember him fondly.
The two things that are striking are his time out of the game and how he might’ve learnt or changed in that time compared to what many experienced above, and whether a stable ownership might coax him into a longer commitment at the club - not lasting two years at one club, even in football management, isn’t the greatest endorsement. Hopefully the project at United can give him the perfect platform on which to do that.
But before that, there’s a relegation battle to fight.