Plymouth Argyle figure outlines explains managerial decision | OneFootball

Highlights

Plymouth Argyle's owner and chairman, Simon Hallett, has opened up on the club's decision to sack manager Ian Foster.

Following the departure of Steven Schumacher to Stoke City, Foster had been appointed as the Pligrims' manager back in early January.

Having previously managed at youth level with England, while also working on the coaching staff under Steven Gerrard at Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq, this was Foster's first senior managerial role in English football.

However, it is not one that went well. Foster won just four of 17 games in all competitions, and was sacked last week following a run of just one win in 12 games.

His last two games were defeats to Norwich and Bristol City over the Easter weekend, immediately after the March international break.

Now, Hallett has spoken about the decision to part company with Foster at Plymouth, while giving his verdict on what happened during 47-year-old's time in charge.

Ian Foster's Plymouth Argyle exit explained

Given the size of the decision, both in terms of appointment and dismissal, many fans will be keen to know the process behind Foster's time with the club.

That is something that Hallett has now discussed. When asked why he thought things had gone wrong with regards to the appointment of Foster, the Plymouth owner and chairman told Plymouth Live:

"With hindsight Ian was in a very difficult position. I think the position was probably worse than we thought it was, that our first half of our season we out-resulted our performances, and the second half of the season we resulted in line with our performances.

"So Ian was in a difficult position and I think the stress told on him and he didn't manage to develop the relationships that would have better enabled him to see him through it.

"The great things about outcomes you get wrong is you learn from them and we have got meetings today (Tuesday) and this week to think about how to improve the process. If it works every time you never improve it. Maybe you never need to!

"I feel desperately sorry for Ian it didn't work out but we just didn't have the time to let him sort it out. People seem to have forgotten after his first month here he was short-listed for manager-of-the-month so it went wrong very quickly after that and it was a great shame but we obviously had to do something in the end."

Hallett also went onto reveal that the prospect of a managerial change being made was first considered around a week before Foster's departure, as when asked about when he realised a change might need to be made, he added:

"About a week before we did, we kind of talked about it a bit during the international break. People said we should have done it during the international break.

"This Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday routine of games makes making changes very difficult because you break the training routine and that can cause even more problems."

Following the departure of Foster, Director of Football Neil Dewsnip has now taken charge as interim manager while Plymouth search for their new boss.

Plymouth Argyle now battling to avoid relegation

In the wake of their struggles under Foster, the Pilgrims have found themselves being dragged into a battle to avoid relegation from the Championship.

As things stand, the club are now 19th in the second-tier standings, two points clear of the relegation zone.

They are next in action on Tuesday night when they host fellow relegation fighters QPR at Home Park, in what could be a huge game towards the bottom of the table.

Foster call strange timing for Plymouth Argyle

There is no doubt that things were not working for Foster at Home Park, and in that sense, there can be no denying that the club needed to make a change in manager, to try and avoid relegation.

However, there may well be questions about why this is not a call that was made sooner by those in charge at Plymouth.

Had they elected to do it during the international break, as Hallett says there were some suggestions they should have done, it would have given them more time to find a replacement, without encroaching on the issue of matches quite as much.

Indeed, it may have also provided whoever replaces Foster with an opportunity to settle and develop a relationship with the players, that would have given them a better chance to hit the ground running over that Easter weekend.

By that point, it seemed evident that things were not going to work out for Foster, and making a change before then, could have helped get the fans onside to boost the atmosphere, and give Plymouth a better chance of getting some positive results from those two games.

With that in mind, there is an argument that if Plymouth do go down by a narrow margin this season - as is entirely possible - questions may be asked about why action was not taken sooner when it came to the future of Foster.