Cheltenham Town have moved to dismiss Gary Johnson after just four games, making him the first managerial casualty of the League Two season.
The dismissal came in the aftermath of their first point of the season, coming in a 1-1 draw with recently-promoted Macclesfield.
The Cheltenham statement read: “It is with great regret that the board of Cheltenham Town have this evening parted company with manager Gary Johnson. We would like to place on record our sincere thanks for the tireless work that Gary has done on behalf of the club, work that has left the club in a stronger position than when he took over.”
62-year-old Johnson has managed a host of different clubs, including ex-Cambridge United, Bristol City, Peterborough United and Northampton Town. He shot to prominence with Yeovil and had been in charge at Whaddon Road since March 2015.
Immanuelson Duku gave the Robins a late point after they fell behind early to a Danny Whitaker goal last night, but the point wasn’t enough to keep Johnson in a job.
Our View
This seems like a harsh firing, he’s paid the price for shifting Mo Eisa on and not replacing him. The Robins weren’t great last season, but the goals of Eisa masked what was an average squad.
He did try to replace Eisa with prolific Danny Rowe, but bids for the Fylde ace were turned down and that has exasperated an already tense situation.
One can only imagine that the move has been done now in order to give any new manager an opportunity to bring in some new faces before the loan window closes. It could be seen as a sound strategy, but to fire him this early in the season suggests that the board weren’t entirely happy with the summer progress.
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