Leeds United: Monk will get the best out of Cook and Taylor '“ Whelan

I THINK that Garry Monk is a very good appointment for Leeds United '“ for me, he will get the best out of Lewis Cook and Charlie Taylor.
Lewis Cook.Lewis Cook.
Lewis Cook.

But in my eyes, it is important that he gets his first ‘signings’ completed now – namely securing the long-term futures of both Cook and Taylor.

They should be his first priorities for Leeds.

They are the type of players who I think Garry can improve and I think they will do very, very well for him.

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I think he will have good man-management skills and a rapport with the kids here.

Garry did a very good job at Swansea and I think he will be a manager who will get the best out of all the young lads coming through the academy.

His teams like to play good football and his style is exciting and quick and his teams play the right way.

But sometimes, that doesn’t always work and you need something else in your locker within that changing room, in terms of personnel.

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Hopefully, he realises that because the Championship is different to the Premier League.

For me, it was important that we got a British manager here at Elland Road.

We have not looked abroad for a name who doesn’t know anything about the Championship or English football and now we have a manager who even though he is relatively young and hasn’t got that much experience, was given the challenge at Swansea and did very well.

But this is a completely different challenge that he is going to facing in a Championship which is very competitive. It is probably the most difficult league to get out of.

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Hopefully he will have an idea of what players need to come into the club.

Everyone will probably start off from a clean slate and he will probably give everybody the benefit of the doubt to assess them in pre-season – hopefully with a few additions.

But in my eyes, there’s a number in that changing room who need to go.

Whether he is going to be given the licence to do that and the freedom to bring players in and kick people out remains to be seen.

That will be his biggest challenge.

Will he be allowed to do his job and be left alone..?

It is the budget that he will be given as well.

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Look at the teams who have come down and the takeovers that have gone on at Aston Villa, while Newcastle United will have money to spend, they always do – to add to the players that they have already got, that is presuming they manage to keep hold of them.

It is a very, very competitive league and there’s others such as Derby County who have money to spend and spent big last season.

Let’s be honest, Leeds could get say Newcastle, Norwich City and Aston Villa in the first three league games and the fact remains that Garry must be given the time that he needs.

Will we be able to compete with the likes of those teams who have come down from the Premier League?

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Are we going to be given the budget and money to spend on quality that is going to add to the team to give us that extra percentage to enable us to finish tenth or sixth or second?

Between now and the start of the season, there is loads of work for Garry to do.

The players who he may have in mind will be linked to the budget he is given. It all depends on the amount of money he can spend in terms of where we will finish.

For me, we need a creative midfield player and another centre forward who has a lot of pace who will get us 20 to 25 goals a season. And let’s face it, they don’t come cheap. Looking at the squad, I would say Leeds need at least six new players and there’s about six probably need to go too.

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There are some players there at the club who shouldn’t be there and are getting paid.

In my eyes, we need to add depth and quality to enable us to compete in this league and make a difference.

We don’t want players who make up the numbers, but ones who make a real difference.

We need people all the way through the team and we have got to have the right characters. That’s the word for me – character – and the character that you have in that changing room.

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We need to get out the ones who are going to be disruptive and start again and clean out the dead wood and bring in the positives.

As for Monk’s predecessor Steve Evans, I think he did a decent job in the circumstances. He came in and was asked to do a job in getting Leeds safe and he did that and a bit more besides.

He can count unlucky as to not get the job next season.

But he can leave with his head held high and a lot of people might want to say a big thank you for all the hard work he did under the difficult circumstances he had to work under.

It couldn’t have been easy and I don’t think Steve did his reputation any harm whatsoever.

I am pretty sure that he will be back in management with another club in next to no time.

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