Tranmere have today sacked manager Ian Dawes following a disastrous start to the new campaign, with Technical Director Nigel Adkins being appointed manager on an interim basis.
Neither piece of news comes as much of a shock. Dawes sounded a beaten man in his post-match interview following the abysmal showing at Colchester yesterday.
It’s difficult to put into words just how bad Tranmere have been this season. While some short passages of play have improved, or did in pre-season, overall there seems no plan, no shape and little fight. Change was inevitable.
Having taken over from sacked Micky Mellon in late March, initially on an interim basis, Dawes managed just 3 league wins from 18 fixtures. To be brutally honest, his permanent appointment in May was a shocker from Mark Palios.
Nigel Adkins takes interim charge
When Adkins arrived at Prenton Park on May as Technical Director, days after Dawes’ appointment, most fans suggested it wouldn’t be long before he’d be in charge of the team. And so it has proven to be.
While his last few managerial jobs have not been great, for Rovers to have Adkins in the dugout at the bottom end of League Two, you have to think it’s a bit of a coup. A former Tranmere player, born on the Wirral and with family still living here, Adkins is a great fit at this moment in time, whether it is for a week, a month or even permanently.
His experience and positivity is badly needed and you’d expect it will be a very different week for the players in training this week. Hopefully, it will be a different Tranmere that take to the field at Crawley last week.
Dawes had an impossible task
While Ian Dawes, rightly, was taking an incredibly amount of flack by the time his Tranmere career came to a close, it’s hard not to have some sympathy. While he has just completed his UEFA Pro License, he just didn’t have the experience, the CV or the attributes, at least at this point in his career, to be manager of a League Two club.
From the very moment he was confirmed as manager in May, you felt it would end this way within the opening months of the season, and so it came to be. He was out of his depth and frankly should never have been offered the job. Of course, you’d be mad to turn the job down in his position and he gave it a go, but it was just never going to work.
Palios needs to think long and hard about the next permanent successor, because we are all out of gambling credit. Another wrong move and we’re back in non-league, only without the ability to cherry-pick the best talent at that level.
