Gillingham Managing Director Joe Comper had a busy weekend where the club parted company with Mark Bonner and appointed John Coleman as the new first team manager with Comper admitting it was a tough decision.

This afternoon Comper spoke to KSN about the sacking of Mark Bonner and said, “It was a really tough decision.”

“And one that we really didn’t consider making until we made it if I’m honest! We as a club were going to stick with Mark, that was the plan.”

“We were behind him and we wanted to deliver something long term, we didn’t want the chopping and changing, we wanted some continuity.”

“I think that it felt like it had just become inevitable in the last couple of weeks, and then after the result against Bromley, we had some very frank discussions with Mark and actually what he was bringing to the table as it wasn’t a one-way conversation, it was very much two-way about what was going wrong, what can be done about it, how can we stop this?” 

“Some people were confused by the timing as we had the Bromley game and then were due to play at Chesterfield on Sunday, and that was because the discussions were ongoing, it wasn’t something that was behind Mark’s back, it was something that we were discussing with him frankly and trying to look at a way forward.”

“The Chesterfield game then gets postponed, so that brought the decision forward probably twenty-four hours and we decided to make the change.” 

“It was sad on a personal level because Mark is a really nice guy and a top professional who worked really hard for the club, I think he had great intentions, but sadly at this club at this moment, it didn’t materialise and I genuinely hope he goes on and has a good career elsewhere as he deserves it.”

“He’s a nice guy and we genuinely wish him the best of luck! But for us as a club, it is done now and is part of our history and we now move on.” 

With the transfer window open, the obvious question is what happens to the club’s transfer targets with a new manager in place?

Comper told us, “We have a few irons in the fire and a few names and deals that have tentatively been agreed or are in place, and we have started with John already is it “yes” that you want to crack on with those because you know them? Or is it “no” as I know them and don’t want them, or is it “hang-on” and let me do my homework on them?”

“It might delay things by a day or two whilst we allow John to do his due diligence, but as always here, especially since I have been in this role, the manager has the final say on what we do in the window.”

“Brad is supporting us with that in terms of giving us some room for maneuver and it won’t necessarily be a case of one out one in, we will probably see a few go out because they want to move on because of their own personal situations.”

“We have quite a large squad but we do have the ability to bring a few in to help John and Jimmy, they haven’t been appointed purely to work with what we have.”

“I would imagine a lot of the stuff we do will be loans as you probably get more value for loans at this time of year than necessarily going to pay fees.”

“We won’t go silly like we did two Januarys ago as in many ways, we are still suffering from that window as our wage bill is much higher than it needs to be. We do certainly expect to be doing a few bits in January for sure.” 

“The appointment of John is completely different from the owners and that is intentional,” the MD commented when asked about the new boss.

“I think that in that last couple of years the expectation has exceeded the reality both last season and this season. We need to do a lot of soul searching as a club to determine why that was and what is the cause of that.”

“I have a few ideas myself which I am not going to sit here and start throwing daggers in front of you, but ultimately, it is my job to sort it out!”

“I have taken the view that from what I have seen over the last eighteen months when the expectations have been high and we haven’t delivered, maybe John brings something a little bit different and we will be able to realise the expectations that we have as they remain the same and we have to find a way of doing it.” 

Coleman becomes the fourth manager at Priestfield inside two years and is a position that Comper doesn’t like. “I think it’s embarrassing!” he said.

“It’s embarrassing to be honest and I am part of it at this moment in time. I was part of the last management change and it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work out – it is disappointing!”

“That said and almost for my own ego continue and hope things work out eventually or actually I can turn round and say “that hasn’t worked out as we would have liked” and have the guts to make a change and that is what we have done and hopefully it works out differently this time.” 

“We have a real opportunity to really change the club if we need to in the summer because of the contractual situations of the squad.”

“So, what we were thinking was that we could make another managerial appointment as we have done three times in the recent past, but in the summer, we could really change things.”

“The hope is that is on both parts that that will be for John as it gives us a chance to look at what we have, spend time working on it and then in the summer the club can say that this is the direction that we are going in and provide a squad for that direction and provide a manager for that direction and we all hope that that is John!”

“That’s a genuine hope and plan, but the summer gives us a real opportunity to make change; we could have spent two or three weeks now working out what that direction is and working out who that is going to be, but we decided that we have a really intriguing option, a real alternative to what we have gone with, so let’s try it and see how it goes!”

“If it’s successful then we can reel in the summer and really drive towards it!”