Pep Clotet

Josep Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) is a Spanish football coach who was most recently the head coach of English Championship club Birmingham City.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Clotet and the second or maternal family name is Ruiz.
Pep Clotet
Clotet in 2011
Personal information
Full name Josep Clotet Ruiz
Date of birth (1977-04-28) 28 April 1977[1]
Place of birth Barcelona, Spain
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Igualada
Teams managed
2001–2003 Cornellà
2004–2006 Espanyol (youth)
2006 Figueres
2008–2009 Espanyol (youth)
2009 Espanyol B
2010 Malmö FF (assistant)
2011 Halmstad
2012 Viking (assistant)
2012–2013 Málaga B
2013–2015 Swansea City (assistant)
2016–2017 Leeds United (assistant)
2017–2018 Oxford United
2018–2019 Birmingham City (assistant)
2019–2020 Birmingham City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

As well as working as assistant at several clubs, he managed Cornellà, Figueres, Espanyol B, Halmstad, Málaga B and Oxford United.

Career

Early years

Born in Barcelona, Spain,[2] Clotet only appeared for local amateurs CF Igualada as a player.[3] He became a coach while still in his 20s, starting with UE Cornellà then moving to RCD Espanyol's youth teams.[4]

Clotet began the 2006–07 season with another side in his native region, UE Figueres, being fired after only nine matches as they eventually suffered relegation from Segunda División B.[5] He subsequently returned to his previous club, still in charge of the youths.[4]

Clotet returned to senior football in the 2009–10 Segunda División B campaign with Espanyol's reserves.[6] He met the same fate as in his previous experience: he was sacked following the seventh round and the team were relegated.

Sweden and Norway

Clotet worked in Sweden for two years, starting as assistant to Roland Nilsson at Malmö FF, who won the 2010 Allsvenskan title.[4] He then joined fellow league club Halmstads BK as head coach,[7] finishing 16th and last in the 2011 Allsvenskan.

On 20 September 2011, Clotet joined Viking FK as coach in new manager Åge Hareide's backroom staff for the 2012 Norwegian Premier League season.[8] After Hareide was sacked and Kjell Jonevret was appointed as his replacement, he left to look for a new challenge.[9]

Málaga

On 11 July 2012, Clotet was appointed as manager of Tercera División club Atlético Malagueño – Málaga CF's reserves – where he helped develop several players who would reach the first team shortly after; their progress was aided by Málaga's unstable economic situation.[10] He left the club after only one season, not being able to attain promotion.

Swansea City

On 19 November 2013, Clotet was appointed academy consultant at Swansea City as part of Michael Laudrup's coaching staff.[11] In May of the following year, he was promoted to assistant manager under Garry Monk.[4]

In November 2015, Clotet was offered the manager's job at Championship club Brentford, but rejected the offer out of loyalty to Monk.[12][13] He left his post at the Welsh club on 9 December of that year alongside first-team coaches James Beattie and Kristian O'Leary, following the sacking of Monk.[14][15]

Leeds United

On 13 June 2016, Clotet joined Monk's staff at Leeds United as assistant head coach.[16] On 25 May 2017, after the pair led the team to seventh place in the 2016–17 Championship, Monk resigned.[17][18] A month later, after the appointment as manager of Thomas Christiansen, who was intending to bring in his own backroom staff, director of football Victor Orta confirmed that Clotet wanted to leave to seek a new challenge.[19]

Oxford United

Clotet was appointed manager of League One club Oxford United on 1 July 2017.[2] He was sacked on 22 January 2018,[20] with a record of 12 wins from 36 matches in charge.[21]

Birmingham City

When Monk took over as manager of Championship club Birmingham City on 4 March 2018, Clotet was appointed as his assistant.[22] He became caretaker head coach in June 2019 after Monk was sacked;[23] ahead of the November meeting between Birmingham and Monk's new club, Sheffield Wednesday, Monk claimed he had made an "error of judgment" in working with Clotet, suggested he was untrustworthy, and refused to shake his hand.[24] After six months, during which Clotet made a start on implementing the board's footballing philosophy as well as demonstrating "coaching expertise, man-management and leadership skills, allied to exemplary professional conduct", and integrated the 16-year-old Jude Bellingham into a regular role in the first team, he was appointed as head coach on a permanent basis.[25] Two months with only one league win at the end of the year was followed by the arrival of striker Scott Hogan, whose return to form sparked a ten-match unbeaten run in early 2020[26][27] which left the team 16th in the table when football was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 June, Clotet confirmed that he would leave the club at the end of the season to "explore other coaching opportunities",[28] but after a series of poor results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July with four matches of the season remaining.[29]

Media

Clotet worked as a pundit on Sky Sports' La Liga review, and also wrote a column for daily newspaper Marca.[30]

Managerial statistics
As of match played 8 July 2020
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record Ref
PWDLWin %
Málaga B 11 July 2012 11 July 2013 40 20 13 7 050.0 [31]
Oxford United 1 July 2017 22 January 2018 36 12 10 14 033.3 [21]
Birmingham City 18 June 2019 8 July 2020[29] 47 13 15 19 027.7 [21]
Total 123 45 38 40 036.6 —
gollark: b+avyquilt
gollark: Yep, that's right, *quarter-hour timezones*.
gollark: That is definitely where I am.
gollark: I'm in UTC+1245, of course.
gollark: Europe/London, you triskaidecagon!

References
  1. "Clotet, Josep Clotet Ruiz: Manager". BDFutbol. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  2. "Pep Clotet becomes Oxford United manager". Oxford United F.C. 1 July 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  3. Steel, Rory (28 July 2017). "Leeds United v Oxford United – All you need to know about the Whites' final pre-season friendly". Yorkshire Evening Post. Leeds. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  4. "Staff profiles". Swansea City A.F.C. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  5. "Temporada 2006–2007" [2006–07 season] (in Catalan). UE Figueres. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  6. "El RCD Espanyol "B" de Josep Clotet regresa a la actividad" [Josep Clotet's RCD Espanyol "B" returns to active] (in Spanish). Join Futbol. 22 July 2009. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  7. "Ny tränare: Josep Clotet Ruiz" [New coach: Josep Clotet Ruiz] (in Swedish). Halmstads BK. 5 December 2010. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  8. "Spanjol blir ny Viking-trener" [Viking hire Spaniard as new coach]. Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Oslo. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  9. Brudewitz, Martin (20 June 2012). "Pep lämnar Viking Stavanger" [Pep leaves Viking Stavanger]. Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Malmö. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  10. Alonso, Pedro Luis (21 August 2013). "Las tres sorpresas del arranque liguero" [The three league surprises so far]. Diario Sur (in Spanish). Málaga. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  11. "Swans get a Pep-talk". Swansea City A.F.C. 19 November 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  12. "Dean Smith leaves Walsall to take Brentford job". BBC Sport. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  13. Robertson, Gregor (14 August 2017). "Taught by Pochettino, a Catalan manager called Pep wants promotion and a legacy". The Times. London. p. 17. Retrieved 16 June 2020 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
  14. "Swansea coaches leave club following departure of manager Garry Monk". The Guardian. London. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  15. "Swansea City: Pep Clotet, James Beattie and Kris O'Leary leave club". BBC Sport. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  16. "Duo join backroom staff". Leeds United F.C. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  17. Percy, John (25 May 2017). "Garry Monk resigns as Leeds United head coach with Aitor Karanka job swap on the cards". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  18. "Garry Monk: Leeds United head coach resigns after one season". BBC Sport. 25 May 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  19. "Leeds United news: 'He was the perfect man to bridge the gap between last season' – Fans sad to see Pep Clotet leave after Thomas Christiansen's appointment". TalkSport. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  20. "Pep Clotet: Oxford United sack manager". BBC Sport. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  21. "Managers: Josep Clotet Ruiz". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  22. "Birmingham City appoint Garry Monk as manager". Birmingham City F.C. 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  23. "Garry Monk: Birmingham City sack manager after 15 months at club". BBC Sport. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  24. "Garry Monk: Sheffield Wednesday boss critical of Birmingham manager Pep Clotet". BBC Sport. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  25. "Pep Clotet: Birmingham City appoint caretaker as new head coach". BBC Sport. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  26. "Birmingham City football club match record: League Championship 2020". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  27. Long, Dan (13 March 2020). "Scott Hogan interview: The Aston Villa loanee seizing a second chance with Birmingham". Sky Sports. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  28. "Pep Clotet: Birmingham City head coach to leave role at end of season". BBC Sport. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  29. "Pep Clotet: Birmingham City boss leaves club immediately". BBC Sport. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  30. Clotet, Pep (10 May 2017). "Conte, el 3–4–3 y un ataque para ganar la Premier / Conte's 3–4–3 & his master plan to secure the Premier League crown". Marca (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  31. "2012–13 At. Malagueño Results". resultados-futbol.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 July 2019.
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