The League One basement side Forest Green Rovers announced another departure as head of recruitment Stevie Grieve leaves, as reported by Gloucestershire Live.
The Scot lasted four-and-a-half months in charge, with Grieve initially being brought in to accommodate the needs of former manager Ian Burchnall, and then Duncan Ferguson, but travel commitments led him to depart.
Making the nearly 900-mile round trip from where he was based in Dundee to Gloucestershire proved to be too tiresome for Grieve, and he leaves after making 10 January signings, including one that has become Rovers’ new skipper.
Some business was left many waxing lyrical including the loan signing of highly rated youngsters Charlie Savage and Tyler Onyeka – with Bolton’s ever-present Amadou Bakayoko also an arrival permanently alongside highly-rated Rangers midfielder Charlie McCann, but several have failed to impress and the battle to stave off relegation to League Two already looks like a lost cause.
Grieve joined Rovers from SPFL side St. Johnstone as the club’s Head of Recruitment, while also taking up a scouting role at Dundee United between 2019 until his departure in 2021.
Grieve replaced former Head of Recruitment Richard Hughes, who took a role at Portsmouth last year.
With experiences in India, Scotland and Canada to boot, he attempted to bring his calibre to help out Rovers, unfortunately for him, it never worked out how he would have wanted.
Speaking about his departure, Grieves states.
“I wish the club well and want to thank the fans and staff for making me feel welcome.
“The travel was an issue so being as committed as the club needs at this time wasn’t easy.
“I hope the team finds their way out of trouble, and if they don’t I hope they come straight back out of League Two.”
A statement on Forest Green’s website reads.
“We can confirm that Head of Performance & Recruitment, Stevie Grieve, has left Forest Green Rovers with immediate effect.”
“We’d like to thank Stevie for his efforts at FGR and we wish him all the best for the future.”
Writers View
It was always going to be tough for Grieves to make any sort of impact in the transfer market, as Forest Green was already in a battle to stave off the drop, but 10 signings was a lot, to begin with so was always going to be difficult to gel them all in together. Travel commitments ultimately led to his decision to depart, so there’s not much you can do about that. I believe a total rebuild needs to happen at Forest Green if they want to attempt to get back to League One, because this season, Rovers look pretty much down and out.
