Garry Monk sacked by Birmingham despite steering club to Championship safety
Birmingham City have sacked Garry Monk, their manager of 15 months who had steered the club to safety in the Championship despite a points deduction and has been through a rocky relationship with the club’s chief executive Xuandong Ren.
It was reported in Telegraph Sport on Thursday that relations between Monk and Xuandong had hit an all-time low after a disagreement over recruitment strategy, the latest in a series of clashes. Xuandong, known as “Dong” at the club’s training ground, had openly discussed with staff the possibility of getting rid of Monk.
Birmingham are to be offered £14 million by Southampton for Che Adams, their player of the year and top goalscorer last season, who is wanted by the Premier League club as part of Ralph Hassenhuttl’s remodelling of his squad this summer. Monk was only permitted to sign loans and free transfers last season and still kept Birmingham in the division despite the nine-point deduction for breaching Football League spending rules.
The club also sold Spanish midfielder Jota to rivals Aston Villa against Monk’s wishes, in order to get their transfer embargo lifted. For their part, Xuandong and the board had their doubts about Monk’s playing style. The decision has gone down badly with the club’s supporters – and the likelihood is that another challenging season will follow.
Birmingham’s owners have put Monk’s assistant Pep Clotet in temporary charge, and coach James Beattie will also remain. In a statement the club said: “The board of directors believe this [decision] to be in the long-term interests of the club. It is vitally important for everybody at the club to be sharing the same vision and commitment to the plans and processes.”
Adams is a long term target of Southampton where the squad is being extensively restructured by manager Hassenhuttl and director of football operations Ross Wilson over the summer. Adams was the subject of a £10 million bid from Southampton in January which was rejected at a time when Birmingham were anxious about their impending points deduction and operating under a transfer embargo of their own.
There has been a further Southampton bid since the transfer window opened on May 16 and the player himself is understood to favour a move to the south coast. There has also been interest from Burnley, who rate the player highly. Everton have also scouted him but are yet to commit. Adams has a three-year contract remaining at Birmingham.
Hassenhuttl spoke to the German newspaper Bild this week about the likely changes to the squad that are coming at Southampton with, he said, five new additions in the pipeline. The club have already completed the signing of Moussa Djenepo, a 20-year-old winger from Standard Liege who cost around £14 million and is the first signing since Hassenhuttl took over in December. Hassenhuttl told Bild: “We want players who fit our philosophy: lots of speed, high pressing, gaming intelligence.” He said that the club were looking at an upper age limit of 24 for new signings.
