Another one bites the dust

Yet another departure from the club's backroom staff last night - and this one is a genuine surprise. Highly respected goalkeeping coach Len Bond has been shown the door. There's a brief article on the Ciderspace news page confirming the news.

Now I was told by a little bird to expect Bond's dismissal, as he was one of the 'Barnstaple 7'. The story goes that this group comprise the backroom and management staff who took the team on the pre-season tour of North Devon last summer, the tour that eventually was to lead to the sacking of former manager Russell Slade. It's said that some petty cash went missing on the tour, and couldn't be accounted for. As is now evidently common knowledge, the board used the missing cash as a pretext for getting rid of a manager they didn't want at the club anymore but who had a contract until 2011. It seems that all of the people who had some kind of access to the missing cash - the 'Barnstaple 7' - all closed ranks behind the former manager and refused to cooperate with the board's enquiries into where the cash went, regarding the matter as ridiculously trivial. However, the board didn't and doesn't regard the matter as trivial and the 7 are now paying for their lack of cooperation with their jobs.

Conspiracy theory, fanciful rubbish or merely happenstance? The facts are that 6 of the 7 have now been sacked by the club or have left. They are former manager Russell Slade, former assistant manager Steve Thompson, former physio Jim Joyce, former massuese Hannah Manton, former part-time fitness coach Lee Southernwood and now former goalkeeping coach Len Bond. Of those 6, only Jim Joyce has left the club voluntarily, and it was widely known that he was disillusioned with life at Huish Park following the club's refusal to follow recommendations made by him to improve the quality of the physio dept's services. Only one of the 7 remains at the club - youth team manager Stuart Housley. Looking over your shoulder yet, Stu?

With all the departures it's going to be a very busy summer for Skivo and his assistant Nathan Jones. Their entire staff at this point consist of the aforementioned Housley, who may well be on borrowed time himself. Not only do the Dream Team have to virtually rebuild an entire squad, they also have to rebuild their entire backroom staff - and with virtually nothing in the way of managerial and coaching experience themselves. We can only hope that all the changes have the Dream Team's complete approval and they already have some idea of who they're going to appoint as replacements. It's going to be a long hard summer for them otherwise.