Former Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk has told the Athletic he took the Owls job as he wanted to prove his worth to former club Birmingham City.
Monk took the reigns of Wednesday back in September 2019.
The former Swansea City man was without a club at the time, having previously been dismissed by Birmingham City following a fallout with chief executive Xuandong Ren.
Monk lasted just over a year at Hillsborough before being sacked.
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But speaking to the Athletic, the 42-year-old claims he knew the Owls job wasn’t right for him, but he took the job as he was eager to prove his worth to his former employers Birmingham.
“The only mistake I feel I’ve made in terms of the decision to take a job has been Sheffield Wednesday. Because it’s the only one where I knew in my heart before I took it that there were a lot of things wrong there. I think the reason why I took it was because of all the bullshit that Dong (Xuandong Ren, the chief executive) had said at Birmingham about me, publicly. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get back in to prove that wrong’,” Monk explained.
Monk tried to rebuild his reputation at Hillsborough having had previous spells at Swansea, Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Birmingham without a great deal of success.
The former defender guided Wednesday to 16th place finish in 2019-20, which was some fall after sitting in the playoff spots in December amid a 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
Monk never recovered with the Owls. The departures of Steven Fletcher and Morgan Fox left voids which were never replaced last summer prompting in palpable struggles.
Ironically, with just a handful of games remaining, both Birmingham and Wednesday are now deep in a scrap for Championship survival which could go down to the wire.
The Owls are 23rd, six points behind the Blues who sit one place above the drop zone.
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