Garry Monk sacked: Simon Jordan hits out at Birmingham for ‘ludicrous decision’ and slams ‘disrespectful’ CEO
Simon Jordan has hit out at Birmingham City for their ‘ludicrous decision’ to sack Garry Monk after he saved the club from relegation.
The manager’s departure was announced on Tuesday, following a 15-month spell in charge at St Andrew’s.
Monk was a popular figure with Blues fans after leading the club to a 17th place finish in the Championship this season despite being hit with a nine-point deduction by the EFL for breaching financial rules.
The club said in a statement the decision had been taken ‘in the long-term interests of the club’, however, reports have claimed there was another, more sensational reason behind his axe.
According to the Daily Mirror, Monk really left the club after a number of run-ins with Birmingham chief executive Xuandong Ren – who was put in charge of the day-to-day running of the Blues by their Chinese owners.
It is claimed Monk was unhappy when Ren moved his office to the training ground, apparently just so he could keep a closer eye on the manager and particularly his training sessions.
Birmingham City have parted company with manager Garry Monk after 15 months in charge
Birmingham are now on the hunt for their sixth manager in a little over two years, and Jordan has had his say on the latest blow to rock the West Midlands club.
“I’m very curious to see what’s happened to Garry Monk,” the former Crystal Palace chairman told Jim White on talkSPORT.
“He seemed to start off very well at Swansea, then landed at Middlesbrough but didn’t last there for very long, and then landed at Birmingham, managed through a great situation of adversity, and yet has found himself getting the sack at a time when he can’t possibly be present.
“And then there’s this story in the background that the CEO has moved his office to the training ground so he can look out of the window at Garry Monk’s training sessions, which is ludicrous!
“If you have a football manager, you let him do his job.
“If any owner or CEO wants to move his office to the training ground to oversee his manager, they should not be in that job or should not have given that job to the manager, because it’s disrespectful.
“If you have to walk around with a hat on saying ‘Mr Chairman’ or ‘Mr CEO’, you’re the one with the problem, not the manager.”
Asked if Monk’s sacking is unfair, Jordan added: “Prima facie it looks like it’s a slightly ludicrous decision, it looks like an aggravated decision.
“It looks like someone has sat there taking exception to the fact football managers speak in a certain way and put pressure on you.
“If you haven’t got a manger pressurising you, that manager isn’t doing his job because he should put pressure on you and then he should toe the line when he’s told, ‘that’s enough’.
“In this situation despite me saying, ‘there’s got to be something in it – he worked for Steve Gibson and he’s one of the most reasonable chairmen and he didn’t last long there’, this doesn’t sound right.”
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