Birmingham City have named Pep Clotet as their caretaker head coach, but have said they are “not actively seeking” another manager “at this time”.
Spaniard Clotet, 42, was assistant manager to Garry Monk, who was sacked on Tuesday after 15 months at the club.
His fellow coaches James Beattie, Darryl Flahavan, Sean Rush and Ryan Needs also remain in their previous roles at St Andrew’s.
Blues midfielder Craig Gardner also joins the staff as a player-coach.
Clotet has now been handed the chance to impress at St Andrew’s.
The Spaniard was No 2 to Monk at Swansea City and Leeds United, before being appointed boss at Oxford.
But he was sacked after just seven months in charge at the Kassam Stadium as the U’s failed to win nine of his last 13 matches.
“Pep will be our caretaker Head Coach and we are not seeking anyone else. said Birmingham CEO Xuandong Ren.
“With the support we will continue to provide them, and their expertise in coaching and preparation of the players, we are confident that we can make significant progress towards what we all want to achieve – success for Birmingham City.”
Opinion:
Well this is just bizarre. In the first place it was a shocking decision to sack Garry Monk after the wonderful stabilising job he has done at St Andrews and this sacking really reminds me of when they sacked former manager, Gary Rowett.
Pep Clotet has proven to be a loyal assistant to Garry Monk, as he turned down the Brentford job in the past to stick with Monk.
However, his managerial record is not the best and at the four teams he has managed on a full time basis he has not lasted longer than year.
At UE Figueres he was sacked after just nine games and the side was eventually relegated. With the Espanyol B team he didn’t last any longer as he was sacked after seven games and the team were eventually relegated.
At Halmstads BK he was sacked after leading the team to 16th place and thus relegation again.
In his most recent job at the Kassam Stadium, Clotet didn’t set the world alight as he was sacked after 36 games which left Oxford United in 10th place. This may seem like a decent job and a harsh sacking but that U’s side was very strong and should’ve been pushing for the play-offs but instead they were nine points of the top six.
Therefore, this appointment really is a strange one and if I have to make an early prediction, I think Clotet may lead another team to an inevitable relegation.
