Manager walks out two days after Leeds United takeover

Leeds United manager Garry Monk has resigned, just two days after Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani completed his takeover of the Elland Road club.

The manager called time on his 11-month reign, saying his “intention was always to remain at Leeds”.

But in a statement Monk said: “After discussions with the new owner, we have unfortunately been unable to agree a suitable way for us all to move forward together.”

Radrizzani became club chairman on Tuesday, after buying the remaining half of the club from Massimo Cellino. He had first bought a 50% stake in the Championship club in January.

Monk was former owner Cellino’s longest-serving manager, the seventh of a trigger-happy reign which saw two managers – Dave Hockaday and Darko Milanič – get just six games each before they were sacked.

The Championship club have now begun searching for their tenth permanent manager in just 64 months.

In a statement Leeds United said: “We are shocked and disappointed by Garry’s decision but his resignation has been reluctantly accepted by chairman Andrea Radrizzani.
     
“Andrea made it clear to the media yesterday that his intention was to exercise the club’s option to extended the manager’s contract for another 12 months and immediately begin negotiations for a longer term deal.
    
“Mr Radrizzani has met with Garry twice since taking over at Elland Road earlier this week and during the second meeting yesterday it became clear that Garry was considering life beyond Leeds United as at no time did Garry wish to discuss terms for a longer contract.”

Monk was appointed last June and won 25 of his 53 games in charge of Leeds United. The club finished seventh with 75 points in the Championship, just one place outside the play-offs as it achieved its highest league finish since 2003-04.

The statement added: “Following that meeting yesterday Garry’s agent requested that the option was not exercised and his resignation was received this morning.
   
“Whilst we are deeply saddened by Garry’s decision, there is no individual bigger than our club and we will now begin a process to identify and appoint a new Head Coach to take the club to the next level.
   
“We thank Garry for his contribution during his time at Leeds United, we are disappointed that we could not continue on this journey together.”