- John Coleman led Accrington Stanley for 25 years in two spells
- The League Two club announced on Sunday that the 61-year-old had been sacked
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Football fans have turned out at Accrington Stanley after sacking manager John Coleman.
Coleman and his regular assistant Jimmy Bell were relieved of their duties on Sunday morning following Stanley’s 4-0 defeat to Wrexham, which left them 16th in League Two, eight points adrift of the play-offs.
The decision ends almost 25 years of Coleman’s service to the club, with the 61-year-old originally taking them from the Northern Premier League to the EFL between 1999 and 2012.
Coleman left for Rochdale before returning to Accrington in September 2014 and has since guided them to League One before their relegation last season. In total, Coleman won 436 of his 1,098 games and was the second longest-serving manager in English football, after Harrogate Town’s Simon Weaver.
However, when Accrington announced his departure, he shared a statement of just 43 words.
Fans have struck at Accrington Stanley after sacking long-serving manager John Coleman
Coleman (left) and his assistant Jimmy Bell (middle – pictured in 2015) were relieved of their duties by the League Two club following Accrington’s 4-0 defeat to Wrexham on Saturday
However, when announcing their departure, the club published a 43-word statement
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It said: ‘Acrington Stanley can today confirm that John Coleman and Jimmy Bell have been notified that their contracts have been terminated with immediate effect.
“Everyone at the club thanks them for their long service and we wish them all the best for the future.”
This was seen as extremely unprofessional and disrespectful by Accrington and several supporters were quick to criticize the club for the short announcement.
One said: ‘A truly merciless statement. John Coleman, who has been at the club for 20 years, has the respect of many in the sport and deserves better than this sloppy paragraph.”
Another added: ‘Joke of a statement. WOW,” with another irate fan saying: “Absolutely disgraceful statement.”
Other supporters flocked in and one said: ‘Really a shame. Bad way to treat two absolute legends. What they did for Stanley was incredible. Fear of the future now.’
More fans couldn’t quite process the seemingly heartless statement, with one saying: ‘From the outside, that’s terrible words for such a club legend. The media team had a nightmare there.”
Another irate supporter intervened, adding: ‘As Paul Cook (Chesterfield manager) said recently, John Coleman doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the work he did at Accrington, this statement proves it.’
To add to the furor, Accrington owner Andy Holt, who is usually extremely vocal on social media, deleted his X account shortly after the announcement.
Earlier this week, ahead of the Wrexham game, Coleman admitted he still felt ‘blessed’ to be manager of Accrington.
Accrington fans were quick to warn the club over the ‘merciless’ and ‘disgraceful’ statement
He had told BBC Radio Lancashire: ‘I still feel blessed to have a job that I love, a job that I have dreamed of all my life.
‘I wasn’t good enough to become a professional footballer, but the best I could do was become a professional football manager. I don’t blame it. The novelty has not worn off yet.
‘We have been working full-time for about twenty years now and that novelty will not disappear, because I enjoy it immensely.
“We have proven over the last 12 or 15 years that we are no longer little Accrington. We may be down in terms of monetary value and what we can afford, but we live within our means and we are rich in spirit.”