Salford City axe manager Wellens
SALFORD City are looking for their third permanent manager of the season after parting company with boss Richie Wellens following less than five months in charge.
Wellens, who dropped down a division from League One Swindon Town to join the Ammies in November, leaves his position only nine days after winning the EFL Trophy at Wembley Stadium – the club’s first silverware since promotion to the Football League in 2019.
The 40-year-old won nine out of 25 league matches and leaves Salford currently sitting ninth in the table and six points behind the play-off places with 11 games remaining this season.
Since his appointment, nine sides have picked up more points than the Ammies (35) in that time frame, including the likes of 15th placed Stevenage (39) and Scunthorpe United (38) in 18th.
Despite reaching as high as fourth in League Two in the middle of February, a sequence of only one win in eight outings and a return of two goals in their past seven games in all competitions has prompted the Class of ’92 to relieve their former team-mate of his duties.
A 2-0 defeat away at league leaders Cheltenham Town on Saturday, where Salford extended their goal drought to over 400 minutes of football, proved to be the final straw in Wellens’ brief stint at Moor Lane.
In his final post-match interview, he said: “The attitude was poor from the start.
“If we stay humble, do the basics right, listen, and take out onto the pitch what we’ve worked on then we’re alright, we’ll pick up results in this league.
“But when players decide to drift off and do whatever they want to do then that’s what we got served up.
“I’ve never watched our warm-up, but I watched it today [and] I’m not happy with it at all. I said to [coach] Warren Joyce when they came in if the game was won on the warm-up, we’re already beat. It was a shambles.”