As player, captain, mediator and manager, Monk always
GARRY MONK might not appreciate the irony right now.
Because there is little doubt that the decision to end his days at the Liberty after more than 11 years as player, captain and manager was made by putting Swansea City first – the same mantra in which Monk has lived by since arriving at the Vetch in 2004.
Cynics might scoff at an idea of such loyalty and commitment in the modern era and from a player who had no connection with the club and the city before he was signed on a free by Kenny Jackett little more than 12 months after the Swans had survived the drop into non-league football by the skin of their teeth.
Yet for all the whole-hearted showings from the centre-back, it was never better illustrated than on one of the club’s greatest days. Monk had not been in the team towards the end of the final campaign in the Championship under Brendan Rodgers, losing his spot to Alan Tate and seeing friend Ashley Williams take the armband.
When Neil Taylor was sent-off in the semi-final against Nottingham Forest, Monk stepped in with Tate switching to left-back and duly led the team out at Wembley. It was known to a few that a back problem left him requiring daily pain-killing injections, asking trusted reporters to keep it quiet as he refused to let his team down.
He didn’t. As Reading clawed their way back from 3-0 down to 3-2 on May 30, 2011, Monk was the man who made the £90million block as he flung himself at Noel Hunt’s shot that seemed destined to level the scores. The goal denied, Swansea went onto score once more and make it to the top-flight.
It was the club he put first when he mediated over issues with Paulo Sousa and Michael Laudrup, the club he put first when he answered the SOS from Huw Jenkins to replace the Dane just ahead of a pressurised South Wales derby. He knew he needed to be relied upon but later admitted his true worries.
“I found myself thinking before the game ‘Nobody has ever done the double, please don’t let this be the first time – they’ll never forgive you’,” he reflected later that season.
“Ten years of building up a great relationship could be ruined in an hour-and-a-half.”
It would be wrong to say that the relationship has been ruined after 22 months of his time as Monk the manager after Monk the player ditched defending for the dug-out.
Indeed, for the vast majority of that period Monk was an undoubted success. Even then there were some who remained unconvinced, but his first full season in charge was a historic one, complete with never-tobe-forgotten against Premier League giants – including doubles over both Manchester United and Arsenal.
He had learned from Swansea’s best managers, from Roberto Martinez who he skippered under to League One glory, to Brendan Rodgers and even those he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with.
As testing times followed this year, he refused to point finger of blame to others – be it players or senior coaching staff – when it would have been easy and, in the eyes of some, justified in doing so.