Pep Clotet hit back at Garry Monk after the Sheffield Wednesday boss refused to shake his hand during the 1-1 draw against Birmingham.
On a night which saw Kadeem Harris strike in the 81st minute to cancel out Alvaro Gimenez’s opener for Birmingham, the football played second fiddle to the feud between the two managers.
The pair worked together at Birmingham before Monk, the current Owls boss, was sacked by the Blues last summer.
Clotet was then promoted to caretaker manager, and before Wednesday night’s Championship clash, Monk sensationally claimed he was stabbed in the back by his former assistant.
In an incredible rant, Monk described the decision to work with Clotet as an error in judgement.
Clotet could be seen asking for an explanation from his opposite number before the match at Hillsborough, but to no avail.
“I wanted to ask him why he said that and I wanted to offer a handshake,” he told talkSPORT.
“One thing that I love about British football is that, whatever the rivalry, manners are on top of everything.
“When I tried to talk to him and give him my hand, I am giving him the hand of Birmingham City.
“And manners have to be on top of that, but that’s up to him.”
Clotet, who also worked with Monk at Swansea and Leeds, then gave us his side of the story.
“When it comes to me personally, I’ve worked in four different countries as a head-coach, or manager, or assistant manager.
“I’ve worked with fantastic managers when I’ve been assistant, I have a fantastic relationship with a lot of them and I learned a lot.
“They will all agree that I always put their interests ahead of mine. With Garry, together we had five fantastic years.
“I think he grew thanks to my experience and my influence, and obviously he helped me a lot.
“It was very clear with Garry that I always put his interests in front of mine.
“That was very clear at Leeds, where I was living a honeymoon and it would’ve been great to stay, but it wasn’t possible because of his problems.
“Then again, at Birmingham, he put me into a position that I could not hold.
“For me, everything we hold together is very positive, and I hope that we respect that when we are speaking in front of the media we are speaking about our clubs and we should be speaking respectfully.
“We should be speaking about facts and not these kind of things that aren’t real.”
