Plymouth Argyle have sacked Head Coach Ian Foster with immediate effect as the club aims to avoid relegation just one season after winning promotion back to the Championship.
The departure of the manager comes after today’s 1-0 defeat to Bristol City at home. Foster’s side had not won since February 24th, when they beat Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough, and had lost five of their last six games.
Loanee Alfie Define was sent off late on for Foster’s side today, but the damage had already been done from a 57th-minute Nakhi Wells strike, which ended up being the only one of the game. Despite being at home, the Pilgrims barely threatened the Robins goal, accumulating an xG of just 0.35 within the 90 minutes, according to FotMob.
Argyle currently sit 21st in the Championship table, just one point above Huddersfield Town in the relegation zone. Foster took over the club on January 5th, but will not see out the end of his contract, with the owners deciding a change was needed. Speaking on the situation, club chairman Simon Hallet had the following to say:
“Ian was hired through a thorough and extensive recruitment process and his coaching credentials really stood out when making the appointment. But we have to balance long-term stability against short-term decisions, and we have given Ian as long as possible to see if results could improve.”
“Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case, and we feel now is the right time to make a change to give us the best chance of securing survival. “
The 47-year-old’s previous two stints in charge at club level came in the League of Ireland, where he was in charge of Galway United briefly before taking over at Dundalk for two years. In his 95 games in charge of the Irish side, he won just 35, leaving the club with a win percentage of just 37.84%.
Before he arrived at Plymouth, he spent time in Saudi Arabia as Steven Gerrard’s assistant at Al Ettifaq. In the 16 games he took charge of, he won just four, lost eight, and drew the other four.
Neil Dewnship is now set to take charge of the club until the end of the season, in what will be his second period in charge as a caretaker manager this campaign. His first game back in the dugout will be a trip away to Rotherham United on Friday night, before a home game against QPR on Tuesday.
Writer’s View
Things haven’t gone according to plan for Foster since joining Plymouth from Al Ettifaq, and with relegation looming, it seems like a fair time for the owners to decide a change is needed. Just one point separates them from the two teams below them, and a continuation of the form over the last two months would have seen them relegated to League One just a year after gaining promotion.
Foster is a young manager and can use this experience as a learning curve for the next side he goes to. A relegation battle is not an easy job for someone in their first real experience in the dugout in English football, and the task has proved difficult for many managers before him, and it will do so for many after him.
