Accrington owner Andy Holt breaks silence on his decision to sacking John Coleman

Accrington owner Andy Holt breaks silence on his decision to sacking the contracts of John Coleman and Jimmy Bell this week.

Stanley terminated the contract of their long-serving manager, John Coleman, as well as his assistant, Jimmy Bell after the 4-0 defeat at Wrexham, leaving Stanley 16th in the League Two table.

Coleman had been in his second tenure as the head of the club, and his contract was set to conclude at the end of the 2023/24 season.

At the same time of the announcement, owner Andy Holt deleted his Twitter account, while there was criticism for how short the initial statement was considering how long Coleman had been in charge and the success he achieved with them.

His now former side only won three games in this calendar year, lost their last three and have only taken five points out of the last 21 available.

But there have been mitigating factors, mostly the number of players that they have been without, with John Coleman saying just last week that if you were to take any squad in football and take out their seven or eight top players for a large part of the season then that team would struggle, whoever they are.

ANDY HOLT’S STATEMENT:

A statement from me… regarding the termination of John Coleman’s and Jimmy Bell’s contracts.

I am now in a position to share some basic detail behind my decision to not renew the contracts.

Why?

A. Last year the recruitment of players was dreadful. Many performances were very poor, injuries were many. We were relegated from League One. During the season Jimmy often complained too many players were being engaged with not enough quality.

It undermined my faith in them.

B. At the end of last season, I had a meeting with John to discuss this current season. Whilst I was in that meeting, Jimmy was ringing another director saying ‘with that team we’re being relegated again’ or words to that effect.

C. The Board’s position was that they should be terminated. Their performance merited it.

D. It was discussed and suggested that they deserved credit for past historic great work at the club, they deserved a last chance.

E. This was communicated to them verbally in a meeting involving me, John, Jimmy, and Dave.

The crux of it was to give them a chance. We’d review around Christmas 2023 and if we looked safe, we would extend their contracts for another season. The extension would be for one season only but could be repeated indefinitely if we got back to our normal performances.

F. Despite this Jimmy went on Radio Lancashire telling the world how it was ‘their club, they built it and that they wanted three or four-year contracts.

This was deliberate and in my mind was done for one or more of the following reasons:

To leverage their long-held support with many fans in order to pressure the club. As show of strength.
To use this leverage to get new contracts of a longer period than that was on offer. The offer was a 12-month extension if we looked safe, despite Jimmy’s claim we would be relegated, which if it had happened, would have made them unaffordable and threaten our club.

To announce their availability to the world as managers.

G. The calling me out in Andy Bayes’ interview was GUARANTEED to divide our club. I communicated this to our managers at the time and told them they had ‘killed me’ as owner of the club. A selection of fans would demand I give longer unsustainable contracts, others would say I should have terminated earlier.

This divide has been evident from that day to this. Even after the termination of contracts the fan base is still divided and more so than ever.

They had to retract the statement giving a united platform for owner and manager to sing from the same hymn sheet.

They refused to do so. Despite months passing by with opportunities daily to right this issue, it never came.

When?

It has been said that I got up ‘out of the wrong side of the bed and sacked them’.

This was not true. The last day in February this year was always pencilled in as a back stop date. The reason is that many players are running out of contract, and the manager, whether it be John or Jimmy or another, wouldn’t have had time to set up for next season.

Around 10 days before the final day I spoke at length with Coley, it was still a condition that a statement had to be put out allowing me to rebuild a united front for the club. It NEVER came.

How?

I WhatsApp messaged and texted both John and Jimmy at around 9am telling them of the decision. I also informed them the club would put a statement out soon.

The reason it was put to them in this way is that, had I discussed (again) with them a mixed message could have resulted. Both messages to them and that put out by the club may be used against the club, so it had to be simple, straight forward and seemingly cold.

Finally, MY comment.

I have worked with John and Jimmy and most of the time it was great, and fun.

They performed badly in our relegation season, I didn’t sack them like EVERY OTHER OWNER would have.

They made serious mistakes and despite this I didn’t want it to end. They went public and divided our fan base probably forever, an action that I did NOT deserve, having looked after them extremely well in my time at the club.

I knew without retraction our relationship was over. Despite having months and months to do this, they didn’t.

It was a combination of poor performance and the public disagreements that resulted in the end.

Their performances led to losses last season of £600,000 followed by this season of £1,000,000. Losses that I have a choice, either fund the club or put administrators in.

I chose to fund the losses because I still believe Accrington deserves and desperately need a great club.

But the continued funding of these losses stops at the end of this season.

I lost confidence in them after nearly two full seasons of poor performances.

I lost faith in them because they seemed to lose the fire in their belly’s.

I lost trust in them because they divided our fan base, when they knew full well I was doing my upmost to work through the problems. I am off Twitter for now because I knew how a good number of fans would feel. I’m not getting into a slagging match.

For me to continue to work with the club I have to be happy. Why would I put money into a club to be unhappy?

Now then.

All the above DOES NOT take away from their achievements at the club. I fully respect their record, I understand fans that have been around them for decades, have lost their heroes.

There should be proper recognition of their achievements. Coley’s bar was called Coley’s bar for a reason. It will remain Coley’s bar.

I believe they are good at what they do and deserve decent jobs going forward.

I passionately believe I have to take the club down another stable, long-term path, my job is to create a club that lasts long after my time or that of any manger or player.

I am still doing my best.

I knew this was coming. I offered the club for sale without receiving a single bid.

I’m trapped between funding the club or putting it into administration.

I chose to continue funding it ONLY if it can be put on a stable path, an outcome I know is achievable.

That’s what is happening and where I stand.

Good Morning BTW.

This is how fans reacted after Accrington owner Andy Holt breaks silence on his decision to sacking John Coleman…

@BeefyGarner: I don’t think anyone can ever doubt Andy’s passion & want for Stanley. Ultimately he funds Stanley or its administration! He put the club for sale – no takers! FACTS…. a decline in performance means change. If you’re constantly getting a pie with no meat in you change bakers!

@GeoffKnox67: Understand the reasons for sacking them, yet it was still gutless to sack them by WhatsApp and classless to announce it in a 7-line club statement.

@willaskey: I lol’d at the “good morning BTW” 🤣

@alexrichards94: Great statement. Open and honest

@chevyfire: Andy’s rationale explains the business side well. As a fan, the sacking could have been handled better. We wanted the opportunity to say goodbye, show are respect properly to John and Jimmy. They have still pretty much gave us league football for another year, not easy to do.

@ZDBannan97: I don’t particularly like the fella but this is absolutely bang on, fair play to him 👍🏻

@MortonJacqui: From the heart. Excellent statement.

@oldparkwood: Who would you trust? A pair of scousers or someone who actually has an incredible amount of money tied up in the club! I know where my vote goes!

@Howardlee310: How does it keep getting worse 🤣 it’s just blatant lies and not taking any responsibility for his actions. He never has and never will do anything wrong after all the backlash he still can’t accept a WhatsApp message was a rat way to let them go. Lost the fire in their bellys 🤦🏻‍♂️

@Burychadchad: Entertaining as always. What a chairman 🤣👏🏻

@TomDGoldy: Where was this statement Sunday? This should have been ready to go as soon as the news broke. Also no mention of playoffs in this statement so what the fuck was the other statement on about? Honks of piss poor management

@LeeSharps316: Very good statement, both acted unprofessional after a very poor season. Andy will only do what is right for the club and this was the right action to take, more should have followed though.

@PNEPlug: I think this is a brilliant statement. Most fans in the EFL would love their owners to be this transparent.

@Dazzzzzz86: Great statement. Even though Holt doesn’t always come across great on here, I’d rather have him than that insufferable clown Coleman any day

@JVB0502: Crazy statement, guys lost his head 🤯

@wayneshutt: Fair play for the clarity, this all could have been handled so much better though in my opinion.

@StandingAlone77: Yikes. So many unanswered questions. Whilst I do think Coleman and Bell got too big for their boots, who allowed them to so dramatically overspend? Why would firing them last season have been fair, given their budget and size compared to other L1 clubs. Not a good look at all.

@gibby9790: No mention of promotion. Player sales. Big away followings. You cannot blame coaches for your own financial mismanagement you horrible narcissist. Enjoy your selfies and handjobs from your cult. Bitter twisted and sadly jealous nonsense. What happened to our club.