Monk sacking a great shame – Allardyce

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce described Garry Monk’s sacking by Swansea City as a “great shame” despite the team’s run of one win in 11 Premier League matches.

Monk was sacked on Wednesday despite the 36-year-old spending over a decade at the club as player and manager.

Allardyce said there needed to be more patience from clubs, despite Swansea sitting just a point above the relegation zone.

“It’s that ultimate ringing in the ears of £120million which causes owners to panic that little bit quicker than perhaps they would before, because losing the Premier League status is not the thing to do this season,” he told the media ahead of Sunderland’s home game against Watford on Saturday.

“Somebody is going to have to lose it. Somebody is going to have to get relegated. [Swansea] obviously feel that the time is right that Garry should be changed.

“It’s a great shame considering that last year he got more points than anyone else as the manager of Swansea than any other manager had achieved in the Premier League.

“Hopefully he will bounce back and be a manager somewhere else because I think he deserves an opportunity to manage again, but he’ll be feeling very down and very upset at this moment in time.”

Allardyce revealed that Jermain Defoe will be back in his squad after an ankle injury, but Sebastian Larsson and Lee Cattermole remain unavailable.

And the Sunderland manager called on his side to produce “top form” to beat Watford, who have already won three away Premier League matches this season.

He said: “We’ve won all of our games by being the first team to score. It’s obviously a trend of ours that we have to continue and hopefully that will be the case for us against Watford.

“The hardest thing to do is win home games this season as stats are telling us this year there are more teams have won away from home than ever before.”