Cambridge United head coach Garry Monk ‘not wasting energy’ on speculation over his future amid run of 17 games without a win
Head coach Garry Monk has insisted that he is wasting no energy on fretting about his future at Cambridge United.
Tuesday night’s last-gasp 1-0 defeat to Rotherham United extended United’s winless sequence across two seasons to 17 games under Monk, who has overseen just two victories from his 22 games in charge of the club.
Monk is well aware that a run of that nature will bring with it more than a smattering of speculation surrounding his job, yet the former Swansea City, Middlesbrough, Birmingham City and Leeds United boss is instead fixated on working to stop the rot ahead of Saturday’s League One trip to Exeter City.
“It’s hard to explain. The narrative is the narrative – I can’t change that and it will always be there,” said Monk, who is expecting to be on the touchline at St James Park despite being sent off after the whistle during the week.
“That’s the nature of the beast. The narrative is always going to be there and obviously under my time we’re not winning enough games.
“In my mind the only thing that really matters is the people that matter in terms of what their opinion is.
“What the narrative doesn’t give you is the context – it chooses the way it wants to go, which is always the way it is but it never puts context to it.
“The context, in my opinion and the people that I speak to with the most important opinions, is the end of last season we had a job to do like everyone said at that point. We managed to get that job done and that chapter is done.
“This chapter now – this season – apart from three games, I feel if we played those again exactly the same way we’d have different results in two, three, four of those games.
“It is strange because I’ve never been a period for this prolonged – I don’t think many have. But the job is to shut the outside noise out, concentrate on what you’re doing well, keep believing in yourself and keeping pushing the players as hard as we can. We need to trust that it will turn.
“I’ve said before, the way that the club is run and that alignment, everyone is really positive. My duty is for every single second I’m at this club is to give it everything I’ve got – that will never change.
“I don’t think about it (losing his job) – that’s just wasted any energy. I’m just focused on giving everything I’ve got. I’m really enjoying working with this group of players, the staff and the club.
“I’m desperate for it to work out and not just for myself, but for everyone. It’s a club that has put itself in such a good position with the way that its run.
“The headline will always be what the headline is – the result. And of course the result is the most important bit, but the context for me is that apart from three games there have been more than enough signs of what we’re trying to do and what we’re capable of.
“If I wasn’t seeing any of that then it would be a different conversation after this amount of games. A lot of people in the club have the same opinion, but that will always get squashed by the outcome and the result and the narrative that’s pushed through.”
Having been red carded for remonstrating with referee Darren Drysdale on Tuesday, today’s press conference provided Monk with the first opportunity to discuss the defeat to Rotherham.
It appeared that a hard-fought U’s performance was going to be rewarded with a first clean sheet of the season and only a second point, only for a floored Sam Nombe to somehow divert a cross beyond the reach of goalkeeper Vicente Reyes in the second minute of stoppage time.
Monk said: “It was probably the cruellest blow we’ve had yet. With the conditions and the weather, what we set out to do is pretty much what we did in the game.
“We created the best chances and it was jus the cruellest of blows – I don’t know if it can even count as a shot.
“I wasn’t expecting to go into the changing rooms with that happening. I thought we did exactly what we set out to do and the attitude was great.
“Games like Tuesday night, you don’t lose a lot of confidence from. We got the majority of it right and it’s a bit of a freak goal.”