Birmingham City appoint Garry Monk as new manager

Birmingham City have appointed former Middlesbrough boss Garry Monk as their new manager on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

Monk quickly emerged as the favourite to take over at St Andrew's following the sacking of Steve Cotterill, who was axed on Saturday following a fifth consecutive Championship defeat.

The 38-year-old has now put pen to paper on a deal which will keep him at the Blues until 2021, where he will be joined by Pep Clotet as his assistant manager.

Birmingham have also brought in James Beattie as a first-team coach, Darryl Flahavan as a goalkeeping coach, Sean Rush as head of performance and Ryan Needs as head of analysis.

The backroom shake-up comes with Birmingham sitting two points adrift of safety in the Championship table, having played a game more than the two teams directly above them in the standings.

Monk's first match will come against former club Middlesbrough, who sacked him in December after only six months at the helm, on Tuesday night.