Joe Crann, Alex Miller and Chris Holt joined Liam Hoden on the latest episode of The Star Owls podcast to discuss Garry Monk’s recent departure from Sheffield Wednesday.
Having joined the club back in September 2019, the 41-year-old guided the Owls to a 16th-placed finish in the Championship last season, 14 points outside the play-off positions and just eight points off the drop zone.
His last two results saw him pick up all three points against Bournemouth and earn a draw versus Millwall, but it appears that wasn’t enough to persuade the club’s owner Dejphon Chansiri that things were heading in the right direction.
When discussing Monk’s departure and the timing of it, Crann suggested the international break had a lot to do with it. Here is what he had to say:
“[It’s the] international break, isn’t it, so when you look at the timing from a logistical perspective, the club have now got a couple of weeks to try and get someone in through the door and they’ll be hoping to try and have that done before the Preston game.”
Were you surprised by the timing of Monk's sacking?
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TIF Thoughts on Joe Crann’s suggestion the international break was seen as the right time to fire Garry Monk…
Sheffield Wednesday are not in action again until November 21 when they are scheduled to travel to Deepdale to face Alex Neil’s side and so it will be interesting to see if the club do indeed utilise the international break to source Monk’s replacement. During his time at Hillsborough, Monk took charge of 58 games; winning 19, drawing 14 and losing 25 (as per Transfermarkt).
Taking his overall record as the Wednesday boss into account, although he’d picked up positive results in the recent aforementioned fixtures, in our view, you could be forgiven for believing it was only a matter of time before he was going to be moved on unless things improved significantly on last season.
Considering the club would only be in 21st place if discounting their current six-point deduction, perhaps Chansiri’s decision to dismiss Monk was indeed vindicated, and that the timing allows him the best possible chance of finding a successor without adversely impacting the team.