Planet Swans ArchivesOne of the problems of appointing someone with such a playing history as a manager is it is almost certainly at some point in the future going to lead to a parting and quite likely one that is never going to be completely amicable.
Garry Monk arrived in Swansea in June 2004 and played a massive part through his 270 appearances in the three promotions we earned while he was at the club. That should never be forgotten no matter how his management tenure ends and that is a huge reason why I was engulfed with the sadness that I felt on Saturday.
I have had the pleasure to meet Garry on many occasions and he genuinely is one of the nicest most honest people you could ever wish to meet with a passion for this club that always impressed me and I am sure was one of the reasons why he was given the managers job in the first place.
He had prior to that appointment for a long time been seen as a potential manager of the future and whilst it was some way of a surprise that he got the job when he did there is little doubt that he did it to a very high standard as was clearly evidenced in his first 18 months in the job.
I really wish there was some way that we could make the change but keep Garry in some capacity at the club. We need to make the change – the performance on Saturday convinced me that there was no turning back – but to lose such a fantastic servant is a huge blow at the same time.
Had Garry not been where he was in that play off final we may never have had the chance of playing in the Premier League and he was always one to never let us down on the pitch.
There has been much criticism aimed at him in the past few months and some of it way too personal and not deserved for a man who served us with dignity and I hope that whatever the club decide from here that preserve his dignity and that we as fans remember the good times and thank him for it
If he leaves there is little doubt in my mind that Garry Monk will be missed at Swansea and the place won’t be the same without him.
Sad times
