Leeds United are still yet to replace Garry Monk, since he departed and joined Middlesbrough.
Garry Monk’s comments to BBC West Yorkshire Sport towards the end of last season about Leeds United, show just how far ahead of them he feels Middlesbrough are.
Monk suggested that his aim at Leeds was to turn them into a team which could go into the season aiming for promotion.
He said: “I always knew this was a huge club but there’s a lot of huge clubs in this league.
“It should be the aim of this club one day to have an objective where they can say ‘right bang’, the aim is to get promoted this season right at the start, like Brighton and Newcastle.
“But as a club we still have a long, long way to go to reach that point where we can say that’s the objective right from the very start.”
At Middlesbrough, though, Monk feels that he has walked into a club already capable of achieving promotion.
The 38-year-old may have felt that he had a lot of work to do to get Leeds in position to go up to the Premier League, but Monk is convinced that Middlesbrough are ready to make a promotion push already.
“We’re going to be fighting for that (promotion) from day one – that’s going to be the ambition and the objective,” the former Swansea boss added to the Gazette.
“I feel we have a great opportunity, and that was another reason for coming here. The clarity that I’ve had from the club around how we’re going to go about doing that, and how we’re going to go together and work through all of that, has been very good. I’m looking forward to it.”
Monk’s departure at Leeds caused a shock, but his first press conference at Middlesbrough may have gone some way to explaining his reasoning.
Monk will not be expecting a warm welcome at Leeds, however, with a lot of anger felt towards his exit.
Leeds are still looking for a new manager to replace Monk, with no appointment seemingly in sight for the Yorkshire club yet.
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