Last month, AFC Bournemouth gave permission for one of its management staff to leave the set-up at Dean Court. The person was Carl Fletcher and the reason, was because he was named as manager of Leyton Orient.
Carl Fletcher’s pedigree with the Cherries played a clear part in the reason why he was appointed by Leyton Orient.
He had previously been in charge of the AFC Bournemouth Under 23’s and had also been operating as AFC Bournemouth “loan manager” a role that saw him liaising with the various departments at each player’s loan club, including coaching, medical, sports science and analysis, to ensure a smooth transition and a successful loan spell for the player’s development.
It should have been the perfect grounding for a return to management, a position he had not held since New Years Day 2013 when he left Plymouth Argyle after 70 games in charge.
Unfortunately, however, his tenure at Leyton Orient turned out to be a brief one. Just 29 days to be precise.
He leaves Leyton Orient with Leyton Orient Chairman Nigel Travis confessing that the appointment was the wrong one for the club.
Speaking to talkSPORT radio but quoted by the Daily Echo, Travis said…
“We really thought Carl was going to be the perfect person – very strong technical background, great coaching pedigree, very strong history at a club we truly admire which is Bournemouth and previous management experience in League Two.
“What happened, in short, is the fit wasn’t right, the cultural fit wasn’t right.
“We don’t blame him, we’re going to blame ourselves. We’d recommend Carl because he did some terrific things on the training field, but it just wasn’t the way we did things.
“It’s gone spectacularly wrong and we recognise that…”
“…The key thing is we screwed up. Carl didn’t screw up, we screwed up.
“He is a great coach, he demonstrated he is a great coach. I think somehow we put him in a spot where we had to step up and handle a culture that probably needs some unique talents…”
Will Carl Fletcher return to AFC Bournemouth?
Yes
No
Your say…
Neil Dawson wrote…
Martin Ling clearly agrees that stability is important so to sack him after one month it must have been very, very bad. How anyone can blame Orient for this is beyond me… they were doing ok to he got there, he changed the style of play for no reason and the team collapsed.
I would imagine he was on a probationary period so to act now was cheaper.
It backs up my biggest concern. Playing in the same team as Eddie doesn’t make you a good coach but 80% of our coaches have this as their ticket to a career.
The Flying Picket added…
I didn’t expect him to be gone so quick. It took Eddie Howe 7 years to figure Carl was not up to it, and it took Orient just 29 days.
Reminds me of Chris Hargreaves, 1st Team Coach sacked by Eddie Howe and then couldn’t even cut the ice as Torquay United’s manager.
zzzzzz said…
I remember Chris Hargreaves being in demand by both Northampton & Torquay back in January 2014, both clubs were at the wrong end of league 2 & he was the early favourite for the Northampton job.
He took the Torquay job & later that month Northampton appointed Chris Wilder.
Wilder steered Northampton out of the relegation places & kept them up, Torquay were relegated & Hargreaves left because he couldn’t agree on terms at non-league level.
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