Garry Alan Monk (born 6 March 1979[1]) is an English football manager and former professional player who is head coach of EFL League One club Cambridge United.

Monk made his debut for Swansea on 7 August 2004 in their 0–2 defeat to Northampton Town at Vetch Field on the first day of the new League Two season.

[citation needed] On 22 November 2005, Monk scored his first goal for Swansea, heading their third as they reached the quarter-final of the Football League Trophy with a 4–0 win over Rushden & Diamonds at the Liberty Stadium.

[citation needed] Monk returned to the team at the beginning of the 2007–08 season as skipper, captaining the Swans to promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in 24 years.

Monk lifted his first piece of silverware as Swansea captain as the team sealed promotion as League One champions with a club record 92 points.

[12] The 2008–09 season brought Monk a new central defensive partner in Ashley Williams, signed from Stockport County towards the end of the previous campaign, as Alan Tate was dropped from the side.

On 9 August, the opening day of the Championship season, Monk was sent off for a foul on Matt Holland in a 0–2 defeat to Charlton Athletic at The Valley.

[15] Two weeks later, he was one of three Swansea players sent off – alongside Àngel Rangel and Gorka Pintado – as the team lost 1–2 after extra time at home against Scunthorpe United in the second round.

[16] Following Paulo Sousa's exit to join Championship rivals Leicester City, Monk criticised his former manager, saying his tactics and training methods were not good enough.

[21] Later that month, Monk won the first major trophy of his career as Swansea, under manager Michael Laudrup, beat Bradford City 5–0 in the 2013 League Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

Monk lifted the cup together with Ashley Williams after coming on as a 62nd-minute substitute for Ki Sung-yueng in the final in a 5–0 win against Bradford City.

After finishing second in their Europa League Group A behind Valencia, Monk's Swansea reached the round of 32, in which they were knocked out by Rafa Benítez's Napoli side after losing 3–1 on aggregate.

[36] Monk made his first signing as Leeds head coach on 28 June 2016, with the addition of Swedish striker Marcus Antonsson for a fee around £2 million.

[46][47] After beating Brighton 2–0 on 19 March 2017, Leeds were firmly in the playoff positions and in the hunt for automatic promotion, having pulled 11 points clear of 7th place.

[68][69] With the team in danger of relegation, he led them to five wins out of the eleven matches remaining;[70] a final-day defeat of promotion candidates Fulham secured a 19th-place finish.

In his post-match interview, Monk insisted that the habitual struggle against relegation was unacceptable, he would be "relentless" in raising the mentality throughout the club, and "whoever is not on board with that won't be here.

[72] Operating under an EFL-imposed business plan and with a likely points deduction pending for the club's breaches of the league's Profitability and Sustainability rules,[73] Monk was able to sign one player for a fee and up to five loans or free transfers on wages pitched at a "debilitating" level.

[74] After a slow start to the season, four wins in October earned Monk a nomination as Championship Manager of the Month as the team rose to ninth in the table.

[75] According to the Birmingham Mail, he turned them into "a side vastly superior than the sum of its parts" to keep them in the top half of the table until a run of losses in March and a nine-point deduction meant they were again in a relegation battle; they finished 17th.