Holbeach United have released an official statement to explain Wednesday night’s surprise sacking of manager Darren Jarvis.
Despite steering the Tigers to second place in the UCL Premier Division and into the last four of the UCL Knockout Cup, Jarvis was fired after a committee meeting some 24 hours after guiding his side to a 3-1 victory at Deeping Rangers.
In their statement, Holbeach have revealed that Jarvis was sacked for consistently spending more than his agreed budget – thus putting the wellbeing of the Carter’s Park club at risk.
The Tigers insist that they gave Jarvis multiple chances to sort out his perceived over-spending, but finally ran out of patience with him when he declined to meet chairman Dave Dougill to discuss the matter.
Here’s the club statement in full:
“On Wednesday night a committee decision was made to release Darren Jarvis from his managerial position at the club.
“The decision was not an easy one, given the club’s very good league position and upcoming quarter final in the League Cup.
“The decision was made not for footballing reason, but for financial reasons as will be explained.
“The club will always put the financial stability in front of any league title or cup, as the committee have never put any pressure on any managers as regards to success (league titles, etc) apart from keeping the club – at the very least – at its current Step 5 status.
“This factor was being brought to a head as the manager, in the past number of weeks, seemed to increase the budget beyond its agreed level.
“Despite several reminders of his need to bring this back down, it was clear to the club that this didn’t look like it was being corrected and made the club question its trust in the manager.
“Further discussions were held with the manager to address this problem and once again it was felt that it wasn’t being dealt with.
“After the Tuesday night game against Deeping Rangers the chairman (Dave Dougill) made contact with the manager regarding a potential meeting to address this matter, as it was feared the club’s future financial stability was in doubt.
“This was declined, which left the club with no option but to release Darren from his role as first team manager.
“We would like to put on record that we appreciate the on-field results from Darren but, as always, the club’s financial wellbeing will be our main priority.
“At this time the club have appointed Tom Roberts and Andrew Tidswell in joint caretaker manager roles for the upcoming fixtures, so the committee can make a decision on the future managerial appointment.
“We would like to thank the club’s supporters and followers for their support so far this season and hope they understand the decision the club has had to make was not easy, but right for the club.”
Former Peterborough Northern Star and Blackstones chief Jarvis, who spent seven months in the Carter’s Park hot-seat, has yet to offer his verdict on the sacking.
