Buckley Sacked!

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 22/08/2000

Town boss Alan Buckley was sensationally sacked by the club's board this morning and has already departed the club. Assistant manager John Cockerill has taken temporary charge of the club for the Worthington cup game against Carlisle tonight.

Alan Buckley has been manager of Grimsby for 2 spells since 1988, and has led the club to three promotions and 2 Wembley victories.

"The board hasn't taken this decision light-heartedly" said Huxford today. "A lot of consideration has been given to it. It's a sad day. Alan has done a very good job for this football club and I won't take anything away from Alan, but I think it is a new beginning.

"People might ask the question 'Why didn't we do it in the close season?' Well, we made a few opportunities available to the manager, we wanted to see how he shaped up at the beginning of the season and it looks to us like nothing has changed.

"So we thought for the best interests of everybody that we should have a change of manager.

"Now we've got to go out and find a new manager. In the meantime John Cockerill has been put in charge of the team.

"Providing an appointment has not been made before Saturday, which is unlikely unless somebody really good comes out of the woodwork, then John will remain in charge until we find a replacement.

"I don't think John wants it anyway. He's been offered it two times before. On each occasion he has turned it down and I think it would have been unfair to put him in at the deep end.

"It's a big job and we've got to find a manager that's got credibility, is well founded and has got the ability to run a very tight ship on a very tight budget, similar to what Alan's done."

"Once that is achieved we'll make an appointment but I don't think John will get the manager's job."

News of Buckley's dismissal is not exactly a surprise. His arrogant statements about the fans, predictable team selections and lack of imagination in players targeted had earned him widespread criticism amongst some sections of Grimsby's supporters over the last two years, verging on outright hatred in some cases. The counter side of course was all that he had achieved for the club in the past. Let's just hope a new man can be found quickly!

As well as finding a replacement, another issue is compensating Buckley for the remaining time left on his contract. No doubt we will be hearing more of this issue in the next few days and weeks.

Who should replace Buckley? Have your say

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