Garry Monk has told the Times that he was hugely disappointed that Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani tried to turn the club’s supporters against him when he rejected their offer of a one-year contract at the end of last season.
Monk quit at the end of May amid talks with Radrizzani to extend his reign following a hugely encouraging debut season at the Yorkshire giants.
The Middlesbrough manager, whose team lost 2-1 at Elland Road on Sunday, steered Leeds to seventh in the Championship and was immensely popular with supporters despite an end-of-season collapse.
Leeds had until 31 May to take up an option to extend Monk’s year-long contract by a further 12 months but the manager wanted a long-term deal and resigned on 25 May, the day before Radrizzani planned to exercise the option.
“There was never any real intention to offer me a long-term contract,” Monk said to the Times. “I also realised then that the club had already been working on signings and pre-season plans and I was kept completely out of the loop. The owner was making changes and taking decisions without consulting me at all.
“They just said to me, ‘We want to trigger the year.’ I said, ‘That’s not acceptable to me and my staff, I’m not happy.’ Quite rightly. I can’t go back to my staff, go back to my family as well and tell them that.
“I thought there was room for negotiation. There clearly wasn’t. I went back in and there was a hint of an offer of three years but with a one-year termination. That’s exactly the same as a one-year deal. It wasn’t right. That wasn’t fair on myself, our staff and our families. I have a responsibility to my staff. I’ve got principles, values.”
The Times report that all parties met again on May 24 but the impasse remained and Monk resigned the next morning, prompting an angry response from Radrizzani on Twitter as well as a strong statement from Leeds, who stated “it became clear that Garry was considering life beyond Leeds United as at no time did Garry wish to discuss terms for a longer contract.”
Leeds’s statement annoyed him as, he felt, it turned the fans against him.
“The one big disappointment is that,” Monk added to the Times. “I felt hurt. What I am saying to you is the truth. I understand they have to protect themselves. I respect Andrea. He’s fine. There’s a lot of good things he will bring to the club.
“It was a big decision [resigning], I was out of work, and it’s ultra-competitive out there, but I’d rather face that than face a situation where I don’t feel valued, where I don’t feel we were rewarded as we should have been.”
OPINION
Radrizzani demonstrated his ruthless side by acting quickly to win the PR war with fans over Monk, who was adored by Leeds fans at the time he walked out on the club in May. There has been some revisionism over his tenure in recent months, but the team’s against-the-odds promotion challenge last season was uplifting for a club that had been in the doldrums for so long. Naturally, most of the supporters have subsequently taken Radrizzani and Leeds’ side, but Monk’s version of events is fascinating, and demonstrates that the Italian owner was certainly not willing to push the boat out to keep him, as he has with long-term deals for many of the club’s first-team players this season.