Former Leeds boss was vilified for quitting last summer.
Garry Monk went from hero to zero in the eyes of Leeds fans last summer when he walked away from his post as manager of the club.
Monk quit just two days after Andrea Radrizzani completed his takeover of the club.
Radrizzani and Leeds fans were stunned, with Monk giving little away, simply saying in his statement, via BBC Sport: “After discussions with the new owner, we have unfortunately been unable to agree a suitable way for us all to move forward together.”
Part of the reason Monk left Leeds was Radrizzani’s decision to hire a director of football.
He was quoted by Wales Online: “With a new ownership it’s a new structure, I have to be honest, it wasn’t right for me. There were things that didn’t suit me and I couldn’t see the clear process of how to go forward.”
During his time at Leeds, Monk was in charge of signings, as shown by his moves to sign his former Swansea players Kyle Bartley and Pablo Hernandez – and less successfully Modou Barrow and Matt Grimes.
Leeds’ big flaw this season has been the signings made by Victor Orta, with only Samu Saiz shining, and others like Felix Wiedwald proving a liability.
Manager Thomas Christiansen was sacked, as much to do with Orta’s failings as his own.
It’s easy now to see why Monk did not want to be a part of Leeds and was happy to controversially tender his resignation.
Where it got messy for Monk was his decision to join another Championship side, and at Middlesbrough he failed, and did not have a director of football to blame.
But that was his failure and he knew the risks. What he clearly was not prepared to do was to fail due to the shortcomings of others.
If Radrizzani had kept the same structure as last season, for better or worse, Monk would likely have stuck around.
Leeds fans are now discovering why he wanted no part of what was around the corner.
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