one question to Patrick ...

He explained this. Full article on the trust website at the article but have pasted the relevant bit:

”Lee Johnson Will Be My Last Manager”

In the Trust meeting in Redfearn’s Bar this season you said that Lee Johnson would be your last manager and no one asked ‘what does that mean’? so ‘What does that mean’ You also recently posted comments with regards stepping down on your Facebook page. Has something changed? Has Lee got longer than previous managers to get things right?
“I’ve not said anything different from what I said in the Old No 7 or at the Fans’ Forum or Redfearn’s. I am not a body corporate, I’m just a body. Eventually you have to die. There is no succession plan at the moment. James Cryne plays no part in the management of the club and never will, despite claims otherwise. There was a time when I would have liked that to be different, but not now. We need the succession plan.

From my perspective. I had set down in my own mind that I need to move on. I hoped we would not get any kind of managerial crisis in that period and that explains the statement.

”The club has to move to a point of breaking even. If along the route someone wants to come along and say ‘I’ll take that burden from you’, I would be very happy if it ensures the continuance of the club, which was always my objective. If we get it to break even then I will give the club to the fans or whoever comes along.

What is needed is a definitive statement of intent from my part and that will come. This is what we need to get to for a break even situation and here are the potential consequences of that. And to set that out. If I went under the bus tomorrow the club will be in an absolute mess and I can’t have that situation”

Ben added: “To balance the books in the short-term we would have to make some tough decisions and decisions that wouldn’t be popular because this is a big beast to run. As Patrick said, the approach needs to be more orderly.”

And Lee?
“With Lee Johnson, I don’t know if he will still be here in a month. All I know is that for the first time ever, we articulated a full plan of how we were going to manage this football club into the future. We want a manager who coached players primarily so he could help in the direct development of young people into better players. As a candidate, he was the best candidate from those available I would say.”

In the past, the fans have influenced me because I’m a fan at heart. We have fired managers we should have kept and kept managers we should have fired. Before this dreadful run of losses I was deluged with people saying stick with Lee. Now the deluge has the opposite opinion, often from those who said to stick with him.

- See more at: http://bfcst.org.uk/meeting-with-patrick-cryne-and-ben-mansford-part-2/#sthash.4H1Q0a4Z.dpuf


Basically he's making plans to step aside and expected that to be in Lee's tenure given the plan put in place.