Pep Clotet

Josep 'Pep' Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) is a Spanish football coach, currently an assistant head coach of Leeds United.

Football career

Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Clotet only appeared for local amateurs CF Igualada as a player. Still in his 20s he became a coach, starting with UE Cornellà then moving to RCD Espanyol's youth teams.

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

Clotet returned to senior football in the 2009–10 campaign, with Espanyol's reserves. He met the same fate as in his previous experience, being sacked following the seventh round and with the team also being relegated from the third level.

Clotet worked in Sweden during one year, starting as assistant to Roland Nilsson at Malmö FF, who won the 2010 the Allsvenskan championship. He then joined fellow league club Halmstads BK as head coach, finishing 16th and last.

On 20 September 2011, Clotet agreed on joining Viking FK as coach in new manager Åge Hareide's backroom staff for the 2012 season. After Hareide was sacked and Kjell Jonevret was appointed as his replacement, he left to look for a new challenge.

On 11 July 2012, Clotet was appointed at Málaga CF's reserves in Tercera División, where he helped develop several players that would reach the first team shortly after, a situation mainly aided by the Andalusians' unstable economic situation. He left the club after only one season, not being able to attain promotion.

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

In November 2015, Clotet was offered the manager job at Football League Championship side Brentford, but rejected the offer out of loyalty to Monk. 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.

On 13 June 2016, Clotet joined Monk's staff at Leeds United as assistant head coach.