JIM ISSUES A WHITES’ SOS
CHAIRMAN Jim Parmenter has blamed “poor player recruitment decisions” for the sacking of long-term boss Chris Kinnear at Dover Athletic this week – and has called on his replacement to help save the Whites’ season.
The 64-year-old waved goodbye to his second spell in charge at Crabble with the Whites having picked up just seven points from their opening 14 league games, leaving them next to bottom in the table.
It brought an end to Kinnear’s fiveyear spell at the club having previously taken charge of the club from 1985 to 1995.
Kinnear’s departure has sparked a managerial scramble in the south-east with former Forest Green Rovers, Gillingham and Barrow boss Ady Pennock heading the list of candidates, along with Jay Saunders, who left Kent rivals Maidstone United after seven years in charge last month.
Former Woking boss Garry Hill is also a contender, along with Kinnear’s assistant and former player Jake Leberl, who took the side for yesterday’s visit of leaders Salford City.
A statement released by the club revealed that they asked Kinnear three weeks ago to provide a masterplan to turn the club’s fortunes around.
But Kinnear’s plans failed to “materialise in a satisfactory form”, forcing him to leave the club after a run of 10 games without a win, in which time they had only scored five goals.
Written plan
“Chris has been a big part of Dover’s success over recent years and the board recognise this,” the statement read. “However, our current position and form is not something we can allow to continue.
“Three weeks ago at a meeting between the board and the manager, Chris was asked to produce a written plan of what steps he would be taking and what support he needed from the board to rectifying our current situation, sadly this did not materialise in a satisfactory form and results have not improved.
“As a consequence, chairman Jim Parmenter today relieved Chris of his position.” Parmenter himself told Kent
Online: “This has been a really tough decision to take, I have worked with Chris for a long time, he has been highly successful with us, but football is changing.
“There has clearly been some poor player recruitment decisions taken during closed season, which is something we will be addressing. There are also a number of issues around training and our ways of working, which we will be looking at.
“We have a good set-up at the club, a decent playing budget and supporters who want to be proud of their team.
“We need to move forward in a manner that gives us the best opportunity to progress – that means avoiding relegation as a minimum and ideally pushing on towards the other end of the table.”