Yeovil sack Paul Sturrock

[Saddlerrad]

No big surprise really, Yeovil are just dropping like a stone. What has gone completely wrong since the promotion campaign? Think everyone expected that Yeovil would slot nicely back into a mid table league 1 sort of side, but they actually run the real risk of being completed relegated. Where's the Championship money gone? You haven't spent it on big named players? What's going so wrong for such a long period of time?

I bet it feels like a long time ago now since the highs of the League 1 play-offs!

 

[Shrimpurh]

Shame it hasn't worked out for him. Did a very, very good job at us when we were in a dire situation and a likeable bloke.

 

[Murphy]

Not massively surprised. It's hard to wheel out the excuse that they have a losing mentality as well such is the turnover of players from relegation seasons (you'd imagine). From what I remember, their summer recruitment wasn't particularly good so it's not a massive surprise that they're down there (with us), just that Sturrock hasn't been able to get above and beyond what those players can seemingly give for the side.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Do we have any Yeovil posters? I know one or two Yeovil fans, who I speak with now and again being not a million miles away and sharing a fondness for a cider.

They suggest that promotion to the Championship was the worst thing to happen to them. They had a familiar plan for upper League Two and into League One that worked, same as a lot of clubs. Selling a player or two now and again to balance books and reinvest in bringing a few new players in from lower down, combined with some decent loans from above - develop these on, and then the cycle starts again.

Promotion to the Championship kind of broke that cycle, it incurred unexpected bonuses and pay rises to all their squad, and then without any room in their finances to recruit Championship players, all these players they hoped to develop and later sell, were struggling every week at a higher level and become unattractive to sell.

They went down to L1 with these pay risen contracts, had to release players and recruit on cheaper terms than they otherwise would have, and also had a losing momentum around the club that was hard to shift, which equaled another relegation.

In hindsight they reckon they'd still be bobbing around L1 no problem if they stayed down that year, and sold a couple of the higher performing players to Championship clubs, and then reinvested it in the familiar model. Hopefully I've done their reasoning justice there.

But if football was purely a business model, wouldn't that be boring?

 

[shoddycollins]

Do we have any Yeovil posters? I know one or two Yeovil fans, who I speak with now and again being not a million miles away and sharing a fondness for a cider.

They suggest that promotion to the Championship was the worst thing to happen to them. They had a familiar plan for upper League Two and into League One that worked, same as a lot of clubs. Selling a player or two now and again to balance books and reinvest in bringing a few new players in from lower down, combined with some decent loans from above - develop these on, and then the cycle starts again.

Promotion to the Championship kind of broke that cycle, it incurred unexpected bonuses and pay rises to all their squad, and then without any room in their finances to recruit Championship players, all these players they hoped to develop and later sell, were struggling every week at a higher level and become unattractive to sell.

They went down to L1 with these pay risen contracts, had to release players and recruit on cheaper terms than they otherwise would have, and also had a losing momentum around the club that was hard to shift, which equaled another relegation.

In hindsight they reckon they'd still be bobbing around L1 no problem if they stayed down that year, and sold a couple of the higher performing players to Championship clubs, and then reinvested it in the familiar model. Hopefully I've done their reasoning justice there.

But if football was purely a business model, wouldn't that be boring?

Can always point the accusing finger at the way money works in football for this kind of thing, whether it's the widening wealth gap, ridiculous TV deals, breakaway divisions or parachute payments, it's all part of the same merry-go-round.

It absolutely should not be that promotion to the Championship should ruin a club such as this, but I can see why it has.

MrGloverLover is the only Yeovil fan I can think of here. But they don't have internet in Yeovil so you don't see their contributions here often.

EDIT: Only just noticed that they've signed Zoko

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

back when we missed out on promotion to the Championship by about 3 points afew seasons ago I actually felt that was a good thing for Carlisle at the time as I expected promotion to that league to murder our club both on and off field...........but since we collapsed without Championship football I'd taken that now.

I actually think Yeovil's problem may just be they simply have never had to turn about a sinking ship. God knows how long it was before they had a previous relegation before the last couple of seasons.

How does a Board, a fanbase, a club....react to a club being relegated when no one has seen it for maybe 30-40 years having seen progress after progress.

I suppose an argument to my viewpoint is Rochdale who were similar, but I still think it could be their board hasn't a clue what to do.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Sturrock wasn't helped by the incredible amount of injuries Yeovil have sustained this season.

 

[Aber gas]

I vaguely remember Yeovil having some superb loan players in their promotion teams. Every club uses the loan system to an extent but with it comes problems. A club can end up with a significantly weaker squad than they were promoted with. I can remember it happening to Hereford when they got promoted to league 1 using some astute loans. Suddenly they were in league 1 but couldn't get the same calibre of player in and ended up getting dicked every week.
And what llamas said, ridiculously bad luck with injuries.

 

[GloverGing]

As much as I respect Sturrock for what he's done as a manager elsewhere, this is the right decision and the board haven't made the mistake they did with Johnson by acting before January. We don't seem to be playing with any sort of game plan and have thrown away points with stupid mistakes again and again. The team needed fresh ideas and a kick up the backside which you felt Sturrock wasn't capable of. It will be interesting which direction the board choose in terms of who to replace him, with the experienced manager option having already failed, I would like to see us do something similar to Rovers and Darrell Clarke (although without the relegation) and give a younger more inexperienced manager a shot.

In terms of the decline of the club, IMO its come as a result of long term under-investment off the field. In terms of facilities there hasn't been any noticeable improvement since our promotion into the league, and seeing what smaller clubs like Crawley and Fleetwood offer just highlight that. There was too much reliance on on-field results to keep the club going, and it was going reasonably well in league one as AFCB Mark has alluded to with a mix of quality loans (Caulker, Mason, McCarthy etc.) and Players released from elsewhere allowing for the us to survive on the bare minimum. I would have thought that the reaching the play-off final in 2007 should have shown the board that promotion could happen and that the club were simply not ready for it. Then when we actually got promoted and we were completely out of our depth, even our chairman John Fry recently said that when we won promotion he could foresee it being disastrous for the club. It showed how far behind the club were in all areas, and that when results on the field started to turn for the worse, the club didn't have the infrastructure to stop it all collapsing. This was further compounded by poor management from Johnson, Skivo and Sturrock to leave us where we are now.

 

[mowgli]

Sturrock wasn't helped by the incredible amount of injuries Yeovil have sustained this season.

I believe it was 11/12 out at the same time. I like Yeovil as i live in Somerset and some of my mates support them. I went there last Tuesday for our League game and had a pint of cider with their fans after we won 1-0 and their fans were a friendly bunch even though they'd just lost. Hopefully they'll get a decent manager in who can turn things around for them. Best of luck Yeovil i wish you well except when you visit Adams Park.

 

[AmbiguousBon]

There are a few of us lurking on here!

Can only echo GloverGing's sentiments really, feel for Sturrock as he seems a genuine guy, but it was time to go as the slide can't be allowed to continue. I think his illness affected him more than was let on as well, you could see from his post match interviews just how tired he was. He has been unfortunate with injuries this year - we're still relying on players that are clearly not match-fit - but some of the performances have been awful.

He was a symptom rather than the root of the problem though, as management at board level leaves plenty to be desired. Chronic underinvestment off the field has been masked by on field success for years. I can't think of any changes in the facilities since we were non-league, bar a new astro-turf being laid (we're still drinking in the 'temporary' marquee...) and failing to capitalise on the extra revenue available in the Championship season is nothing short of incompetent - who'd have thought there would be lots more away fans wanting a drink?

Instead of investing in the playing squad or match day facilities, they have been chasing a full ground redevelopment, submitting multiple planning applications for a retail park on the land next to the stadium (at some cost) all of which so far the council have rejected.

I fear for us if we drop back to the Conference this season, it's certainly a lot stronger than when we were last down there.

 

[MrGloverLover]

Can always point the accusing finger at the way money works in football for this kind of thing, whether it's the widening wealth gap, ridiculous TV deals, breakaway divisions or parachute payments, it's all part of the same merry-go-round.

It absolutely should not be that promotion to the Championship should ruin a club such as this, but I can see why it has.

MrGloverLover is the only Yeovil fan I can think of here. But they don't have internet in Yeovil so you don't see their contributions here often.

EDIT: Only just noticed that they've signed Zoko

I made it out of Yeovil to a place where they have the internet

 

[MrGloverLover]

Do we have any Yeovil posters? I know one or two Yeovil fans, who I speak with now and again being not a million miles away and sharing a fondness for a cider.

They suggest that promotion to the Championship was the worst thing to happen to them. They had a familiar plan for upper League Two and into League One that worked, same as a lot of clubs. Selling a player or two now and again to balance books and reinvest in bringing a few new players in from lower down, combined with some decent loans from above - develop these on, and then the cycle starts again.

Promotion to the Championship kind of broke that cycle, it incurred unexpected bonuses and pay rises to all their squad, and then without any room in their finances to recruit Championship players, all these players they hoped to develop and later sell, were struggling every week at a higher level and become unattractive to sell.

They went down to L1 with these pay risen contracts, had to release players and recruit on cheaper terms than they otherwise would have, and also had a losing momentum around the club that was hard to shift, which equaled another relegation.

In hindsight they reckon they'd still be bobbing around L1 no problem if they stayed down that year, and sold a couple of the higher performing players to Championship clubs, and then reinvested it in the familiar model. Hopefully I've done their reasoning justice there.

But if football was purely a business model, wouldn't that be boring?

That's pretty much spot on Mark. We had a business model which worked and couldn't get our heads around adapting to the extra pressures of the Championship. Haven't recovered since.

 

[MrGloverLover]

back when we missed out on promotion to the Championship by about 3 points afew seasons ago I actually felt that was a good thing for Carlisle at the time as I expected promotion to that league to murder our club both on and off field...........but since we collapsed without Championship football I'd taken that now.

I actually think Yeovil's problem may just be they simply have never had to turn about a sinking ship. God knows how long it was before they had a previous relegation before the last couple of seasons.

We've been relegated as many times in the past 2 years as in the previous in 118 put together.

 

[MrGloverLover]

I just really hope we go for a hungry young manager, possibly someone who's done their badges and been youth manager or similar at a good club and is now ready for their first job looking after a first team.

 

[David Curries Mullet]

Pity Gary Neville's just been taken.

 

[AtaturkOzgutson]

In terms of facilities there hasn't been any noticeable improvement since our promotion into the league, and seeing what smaller clubs like Crawley and Fleetwood offer just highlight that.

If you're jealous of what Crawley offer as an experience, Yeovil must be awful and you are truly in trouble.

 

[The Terminator]

Another thing which IMO has hit Yeovil, is that they scrapped their youth team. I cannot for the life of me understand why any club down in Leagues One or Two would even consider scrapping their youth system.

 

[LadyWomble]

Another thing which IMO has hit Yeovil, is that they scrapped their youth team. I cannot for the life of me understand why any club down in Leagues One or Two would even consider scrapping their youth system.

Probably down to money, certainly the reason given by the likes of Wycombe and Crawley. Having a category 3 academy means a club gets £X from central funding but they have to contribute almost the same amount themselves. Too lazy/late to look up the figures/rules but it's not cheap. A short-term strategy, granted, but if a club is strapped for cash, perhaps understandable.

 

[thewwfc]

That's exactly our reason for scrapping our youth set-up. The saddest thing in our case was that we did it at a time when we had had a run of strong youngsters coming through either into our first XI or being sold on to higher-division clubs.

I think it was the EPPP thing that really triggered our academy closure though, I forget the exact details but I think it's something around premiership clubs watering down the rules about how much they have to pay Football League clubs for creaming off their top talent...and forcing the Football League clubs to vote to accept this, otherwise the Prem clubs would withhold/reduce the small percentage of cash that they trickle down to the Football League on an annual basis.

 

[MrGloverLover]

Exactly right, we scrapped the youth academy because the football league changed the rules and made it far more expensive. For a club living hand to mouth already we just couldn't afford it. For several years we only had a first team and nothing else, not even reserves.

Luckily we were in a position to be able to resurrect the youth set-up at the start of this season and it's already produced one potential gem in Ollie Bassett who signed a pro contract this week.

 

[MrGloverLover]

If you're jealous of what Crawley offer as an experience, Yeovil must be awful and you are truly in trouble.

We are truly awful and truly in trouble.

 

[Aber gas]

You could do worse than Stewie, think he'd be brilliant for you. Hope he doesn't get it though.

 

[MrGloverLover]

You could do worse than Stewie, think he'd be brilliant for you. Hope he doesn't get it though.

I'd be happy to give him a go. The fans would take to him straight away after his time playing for us and THAT goal against Forest.