MIDDLESBROUGH SACKED MANAGER Garry Monk just hours after his Championship side’s 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
Monk only took charge at Middlesbrough in June, but the former Swansea and Leeds boss was unable to mastermind the expected promotion challenge.
Middlesbrough, who won 10 of their 23 league games under Monk, are ninth in the second-tier table, three points behind Aston Villa, who occupy the final play-off place.
“Middlesbrough Football Club have parted company with manager Garry Monk,” the club announced in a statement following the come-from-behind win in Sheffield.
Monk managed Swansea in the Premier League between 2014 and 2015 before helping Leeds to a seventh-placed finish in the Championship last term.
He was unable to agree an extension to his stay at Leeds under new owner Andrea Radrizzani, leaving last May before swiftly taking up the reigns at Boro.
Middlesbrough had hoped to bid for automatic promotion under Monk, having been relegated from the Premier League in May.
But they are far adrift of that target and have reacted by relieving Monk of his position two days before Christmas.
“The club would like to thank Garry for all his hard work and dedication, and wish him all the best for the future,” the statement said.
“The club’s academy manager Craig Liddle will take temporary charge of first team affairs during the interim period while a successor is appointed.”
Middlesbrough’s first match without Monk is at home to Bolton on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Wolves have opened up a seven-point gap at the top of the Championship after they beat Ipswich Town 1-0 and Cardiff City lost 2-0 at Bolton Wanderers.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have been the standout side so far this season and they are showing no sign of slowing down, as they head into the festive period in confident fashion.
Bristol City were unable to build on their EFL Cup win over Manchester United with another victory, as they drew 1-1 at QPR, while Leeds United, 1-0 victors over Hull City, and Aston Villa hold on to their places in the top six, despite the latter relinquishing a 2-0 lead and ultimately drawing 2-2 with a Sheffield United side who had lost three in a row.
Towards the bottom of the table, Burton Albion pulled themselves out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Reading, securing victory late on through Tom Naylor.
Middlesbrough also benefited from some late drama at Sheffield Wednesday, scoring twice in the final 19 minutes to win 2-1 and inflict a third successive defeat on their hosts.
Derby County meanwhile recorded their fourth victory and fourth clean sheet in succession, beating Millwall 3-0 at home to close in on Cardiff.
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Second Captains RAGING!
He’ll be off the list of the Top Ten Irish sports star over this move :)
We all think the grass is greaner.. The lads imo made a huge mistake by jumping ship.. Ireland is a small place, apart from their part time tv gig what else do they expect to get
I think they are doing grand with the TV show, weekly podcasts, articles in the Irish times, Slate etc etc… I’m sure they could have more work but they aren’t doing badly considering it’s only been a year. Better than getting stale doing the same show forever.
Bodcast.
Good idea actually, he should do something like that from his own website. Get his old team mates in, a bit of punditry, etc. I’d certainly listen to it.
Remembering murf, mcdevitt, hick and of course ken burley at this time.
BOD is above this think he jumped the gun although if the money was as huge as it should be for his services fair play to him wish him the best. I think this move shows that he has a coachin gig lined up somewhere maybe Munster :-)
He could teach them a thing or two down there! :)
I don’t think many people training in radio or recent graduates from media courses could bring the same level of insight and credibility when talking about rugby as Brian O’Driscoll. In addition to playing at the top level he also has over 15 years of experience working with the media to some degree. Can’t understand how any young journalists could feel hard done by the best man for the job, getting the job.
More D4 nasal tones on newstalk.
He is actually from clontarf D.3 on the northside.
He’s from Clontarf
Yeah, at last
Hate that Pat….
Great news. A clean break would have been too much of an emotional blow for me to take.
If only we could get rid of McGuirk off of the RTE panel
I think he is a boring sod Mr goodie two shoes
Nobody really care what you think with your constant trolling comments , good God did you not go back to school today !
Hey troll..if you’ve nothing good to say keep your gob shut u gob s*ite!
Your on twitter with one follower that says it all u numb head
Cause I don’t use it you spa! What are you stalking me or something… Friggin creepy weirdo!
Not trolling here guys. I’m just genuinley sick to the teeth of hearing, reading and listening about this story. It’s worse than who shot JR!
Hey weirdo.. Still can’t believe you checked me out on twitter.. Freak! Next thing you’ll be asking for my number..
Im a huge BOD fan but this is just another slap in the face of people training to be radio presenters and journalists and trying to work their way to the top. Unsurprisingly its off the ball who have continued, if not mastered, this trend
Fair point, but i doubt that anybody straight out of college is going to be getting a slot presenting on off the ball anyway. Its a sports program so filling it with people who have been involved with sports at the top level makes sense to me.
No people aint gonna get in straight outta college, but why should you work hard knowing that the top jobs are just gonna be handed to retired sports stars with no experience or skills in radio/print?
It’s a masterstroke from off the ball. The whole world will be tuning in tonight to hear him. Who’s going to tune in to hear some guy straight out of collage ? It’s about ratings after all.
That is the nature of the beast. If it was a gardening slot it would be a top gardner brought in so why not the same for sports. Who are people more likely to listen to is what it comes down to.
I wud agree if he was a rugby pundit but this says he is new co-host so itl be similar to gizzy and parkinson
Off The Ball is a well established, and long running, popular show. Very few people, if any, would walk straight out of college and onto a presenter slot of a show that revolves around specialist subjects.
That shouldn’t mean that there’s no hope for people training to be radio presenters, just look at how far the Off The Ball & Second Captains lads have come from not being professional sports stars. They ground their axe for years and have made it relatively big. Perseverance is the name of the game. Simply put, a degree in something alone wont get you very far in many sectors.
Commercial broadcasting is about building audiences and advertising revenues. Unless they succeed at that they can’t employ anyone. Hence a sprinkling of star names across all the broadcast media.
College media graduates go into sh!tty gossip shows on Spin SW. Stuff for teenagers.
I think a sports-person on the same level and of the same calibre as O’Driscoll (not Drico) is the perfect choice for both OTB//Newstalk//The audience.
Please tell me it’s a direct replacement for Parkinson!
I think it’s probably a good thing he hasn’t gone straight to coaching. Very few manage the change over well and I think he may be too much of a star to go directly into it. A bit of a break will do him good and if down the line he decides coaching is right for him, he’ll be hungry coming back to it.
Blue Shite !
Cork man through and through I’ll have you know!
Sorry thought it was my stalker James from Donobate !!!
Blue shite Flash? Is it cold in Rathkeale or do you not have any doors on your outhouse. ;)
Cue sad little stalker no 2 – get a life you imbecile !
The list of trolling idiots on this site just gets bigger by the day …. Sort it out Score FFS !!!!!!!
The off the ball Leinster love in is now officially complete
As if the Leinster bias on that show wasn’t enough as it is.
I know it’s great, right!.. Long may it last!
A great decision well done Ger gilroy.
If our so called hero was a nice man he would turn down the program and say give the job to a out of work journalist. Its greed again and he is a millionaire
lol
Troll
Jesus what did he do to you?
Tr-lol
You’re gas
I’m sure as long as O’Driscoll says it, then they’d be happy to go along with it. After all, it’s vital that everybody in Ireland gets employed in a sequence that pleases Denise.
God sake Denise cheer up luv
God you’re an idiot
Journalists who are out of work are out of work for a reason.
Congrats to newstalk grt scoop !
I suspect this is only that start of BOD’s media career – a training run…when he is ready he will join Sky, the BBC or whoever covers the Six Nations and the other big European games. Why spend a lot of cold wet days coaching the game when you can earn millions talking about it ? He can also earn big money as an after dinner speaker, on TV shows, product endorsements and for personal appearances. After a few years he can then become President of the EU, if there still is one.
he’s got the product endorsements nailed; don’t you worry about that.
Seems a bit, errr, small time to me. Also, you’d have to expect the rest of the guys on that show to be, to put it mildly, overshadowed by one of the rare world class sporting talents ireland has produced. Maybe he’ll develop into Ireland’s Gary Lineker or something like that, but he just seems a bit too big time to be presenting a late evening radio sports show.
Love to see him go into coaching, pass some of his experience on. If even a bit got through it’d be worth it