The Swansea City captain was speaking in the run up to Rodgers’ return to the Madejski Stadium with the Swans looking for a second successive road victory.
Ironically it was Rodgers’ other previous club – Watford – who were the opponents last time on the road and now he gets the chance to get one over Reading, the club who dismissed him just 21 games into his reign last season.
And that dismissal was – according to Monk – a mistake as he explained to the Western Mail โHaving worked with him, I was really surprised things didnโt work out at Reading
โBut the way I look at it, Readingโs loss is our gain.
โThe training he tried to bring in at Reading is the sort of thing we have been doing for a number of years now.
โSo we are much more suited to his style and what he wants to do. People can see from the results we are getting and the way we are playing he is not a bad manager whatsoever.
โIn fact, he is a top, top manager.
โI was expecting good things and he has not disappointed โ heโs been brilliant with us
โWhen he came in here I knew he was a good manager. Iโd spoken to a few boys I know at Reading and they liked him. They thought he was a good coach.
โHeโs said himself that Reading was the right club but at the wrong time.
โEvery manager, apart from a very few of the top ones, have been sacked at one time or another in their career.
โJust because you get sacked somewhere does not mean you are a bad manager.
โI was watching a programme about football management recently and it said 10 years ago the average time a manager was given was about two and a bit years. Now it is about 12 months.
โItโs stupid but thatโs the way football is going. It is so crucial when clubs make decisions and get the right man in.
โOf course, you are going to make mistakes here and there but you need to get it bang on.
โYou canโt knock our board, theyโve picked the perfect man for the job.
โHe is honest with us and thatโs all you can ask for in a manager,โ said Monk.
โThe quality of player he has brought in shows the respect he has in the game and how much people think of him. For me it makes a massive difference to get on with the manager.
โYou look at all the best managers in the world, probably their top skill is their man-management.
โJose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp are all top man-managers. It is something our gaffer is very big on.
โHe talks to every single one of us, not just about football but about everything in your life and things in his life.
โIt makes a massive difference and itโs something Iโve learnt from all the managers Iโve had over the years.
โThe ones who tend to be better are the ones who are good at man-management and it is something I have taken on board when I hopefully go into coaching. It helps you progress as a player.
โThe gaffer wonโt make a big deal of it, he didnโt at Watford and he wonโt at Reading,โ he added.
โBut as players you know in the back of your mind you want to do well for him.
โIt might give you the extra one or two per cent you need to win a game.
โWe go out to every game with that mentality but it will give us extra satisfaction if we can put in a good performance for the manager.โ