Ian Foster has been sacked....and Neil Dewsnip and Kevin Nancekivell will manage the team until the end of season.
He had to go to give us a chance of staying up.....he surely would have been sacked in the summer anyway...which ever division we where in.
There will be concern about Dewsnip and Nancekivell being in charge until the end of season. There record looking after the team after Schumacher jumped the ship wasn't that glowing....but of course the team where in shock after Schumacher leaving for a struggling Stoke and taking most of his staff with him. I assume we have had to pay up Foster's contract....meaning that the budget isn't there for a new manager/coach.....and of course time is the essence with only 6 games left and the season finishing in a months time.....so Dewsnip and Nancekivell it is then.
It’s a case of “you’re getting sacked when the pubs close tonight” then. Not quite as catchy as the original. If Simon Hallett is in the USA.- and I believe he’s recently had some sort of.operation, they had to do it last night rather than wait until UK lunchtime when the sun comes up in the States. Ian Foster was under contract until 2027 so there will be a considerable financial penalty. I don’t think this was all his fault and Neil Dewsnip has to take a large slice of the blame. I read a piece which pointed out that we’d recruited more wing-backs in the January window rather than full backs, which more or less pre-ordained that we’d move from Schumacher’s relatively successful 4-at-the-back to a three. That in addition to the over reliance on England Under Whatevers. Personally, I’d have preferred to bring in an experienced traditional manager on a short contract. And yes in this crisis, I’d settle for Neil Warnock, who’d probably bite our hand off.
The outcome of a three and a half year contract can end up a stroke of genius...tying down a good manager....or look a total disaster if it goes wrong (and 3 months is as bad as it gets). You can look at it and say that a good manager takes all of the contract to earn the money.....and you can also say that a manager who gets the sack with three and a quarter years left on his contract....gets all of the money in three months and is laughing all the way to the bank (if you can find one that is). So feeling sorry for Foster is a little misplaced I would say. I'm not blaming PAFC for getting it wrong in this case....employing someone who has experience at youth level...but as never managed a senior team at FL level looks a bit iffy....but if it comes off it can look a stroke of genius....maybe the question is why 3.5 yrs. Sacking him now is giving us a slim chance of scraping enough points together to stay up.....if we kept him...would we want to start next season with Foster in charge even if it was in a lower league. If we stay up there is a honeypot pay out next season in the Championship....and that would help us pay off his long contract....going down means no honeypot pay out and still his wage bill to fork out.
The other point is the similarity between Neil Dewsnip's career track and Ian Foster's. Neither have significant experience in playing or managing league football - not at least at this level let alone the top 10 of the Championship where we aspire to be within 5 years. I know the days have gone when Ian Holloway allegedly recruited Krisztan Timar just because he'd punched out some scally who had a go at one of his team mates in a nightclub.. I cant help thinking though that even in these days of deep data analysis, a bit of creative tension between Director of Football and Head Coach is a good thing and likely to lead to better decisions than a total meeting of minds..
Neil Warnock says he would have taken over at Plymouth Argyle until the end of season if he had been offered the roll after Ian Foster's sacking.....he told radio Devon. Not everyones cup of tea our Neil....but the man knows what's required in these circumstances and he has done it more than anyone else in the UK. He has watched Argyle enough to know the players and their strengths and weaknesses'. Beggers can't be choosers when things are so dire....and you get help from wherever you can. Neil Dewsnip and Kevin Nancekevill have little experience of this type of fire fighting.....and we can only hope that they can spark the players into action and bring some confidence into the team.....they won't get a better chance than at nearly relegated Rotherham Friday night. If we lose on Friday I'll be watching Saturdays results from behind the settee.
I won't be sitting behind any settee at any time with results. I have been here so many times before with Argyle that it fails to register mostly. It is what it is and we will end up wherever we end up. If it's going to happen then we will get the same results whether we hide or not. A touch sad is probably about as animated as I will get.
Interesting comments from Joe Edwards. https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/football/joe-edwards-gives-plymouth-argyle-9211591
I read that. To be fair it was nothing the fans hadn't been saying for a few weeks/months was it. You could see there was something wrong by the players demeanor and especially when we went one down against Bristol. Their shoulders visibly dropped and they weren't playing with any smiles. It is a bit unusual for a player to come out and say that though and he wasn't the only player to comment either. I have worked for a person who I detested with a passion and he just killed the togethness mood the staff had. The work that people did happily even outside of paid time just stopped and people could only wait for going home time with relief. Foster has no man management skills at all which is fairly obvious.
