Swansea boss Monk brands international break 'farcical'

Swansea City boss Garry Monk has slammed the current international break.

Monk is furious he currently has to make do without 10 first-team players including skipper Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Jonjo Shelvey who are all in friendly action for their countries.

"This international break is a bit farcical," said Monk.

"For me this break is pointless, a bit ridiculous to be honest. It's just a money-making scheme for the national FAs. It's not really beneficial to any of the players and if anything it disrupts the club teams.

"You would be better off putting a friendly nearer to the tournament next summer. But that's out of my hands.

"I know there are the play-offs, but common sense would be for nobody else to play international football this week.

"When you are this far from a tournament, I don't think any international manager is going to get much out of a friendly in terms of tactics or working on things because anything can happen in the next seven or eight months.

"I understand breaks when they are meaningful games, but these breaks are hard to take."