Jansson

Leeds United defender Jansson comments on Monk leaving

Pontus Jansson has been a revelation in his first season at Elland Road, picking up rewards and plaudits along the way – as well as 15 yellow cards. Now he has spoken out to Swedish publication fotbollskanalen with his views on Garry Monk’s departure.

As is well known, after receiving much coverage in the media, Garry Monk walked away from Leeds United earlier this week, tendering his resignation rather than extending his deal. This leaves new owner Andrea Radrizzani looking for a new manager at the club, with ex-Premier League bosses such as Aitor Karanka and Claudio Ranieri in the frame.

There was a degree of friction between Monk and Jansson during last season’s Sky Bet Championship campaign, with the Swedish centre-back missing some games for transgressions of policies laid down by Monk. That was all smoothed over, Jansson coming back into the fold and into the starting line-up once more.

That didn’t stop Monk feature quite warmly in what Jansson says to fotbollskanalen about his former manager walking away from the West Yorkshire club. Jansson had previously touched on the dispute between the two saying of it in a previous interview: “It’s forgotten now anyway. Sometimes a man can lose the mood, that’s the simple truth.”

However, that fall out didn’t stop the warmth and gratitude that Jansson feels for Monk, helping to cement the shock that he is feeling at Monk’s departure from the club. Speaking directly, Jansson says of Monk’s resignation that he  feels: “Terribly sad, of course. I liked Garry a lot. It was just shocking to be honest.”

Jansson then went on to add that this shock comes from a deep-seated respect that he has for Gary Monk saying of him: “He has been awesome, [a] really nice person, [a] good football coach…He gave me confidence in particular, time for me to mature as a player and a person. He believed [in] me from day one.”

The position of head coach/manager at Elland Road is still open to much conjecture at the moment. Currently it remains a position unfilled, but there does seem to be a degree of jockeying that has brought the names of former Middlesbrough and Leicester City bosses Aitor Karanka and Claudio Ranieri to the top of a bunch of names suggested as the next incumbents in the Elland Road hotseat.

Who do you think Leeds United should bring in next to Elland Road?

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