Garry Monk's plans for the next 12 months seemed to be set in stone yesterday as new Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani took full control of the club and laid down his plans to extend his manager's contract.
But Radrizzani has today been left shocked as Monk has opted to walk away instead in a move bound to trigger rumours of a better deal elsewhere.
A statement on the club's website today read:
Leeds United can confirm that we have received Garry Monk’s resignation from his role as First Team Manager.
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.
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 would could not continue on this journey together.
As you can imagine the bewildered Leeds fans have been reacting quite negatively as the club has stumbled again when it looked to be on the verge of stability.
Well! I for one am off too drink a big bottle of Toilet Duck. #lufc
— Mr Geldard (@MrJGeldard) May 25, 2017
"What the fuck" now trending in Leeds #lufc
— Neil Royce (@royceylufc) May 25, 2017
Was gonna tweet about Leeds but the phone did it for me #lufc pic.twitter.com/gsMm5L4MFP
— Snodpiece, VA (@snodpiece7) May 25, 2017
