Ben Strevans leaves Eastleigh

[robc]

Just announced on BBC Radio Solent "Eastleigh FC have parted company with Ben Strevans" Jason Bristow takes over as caretaker manager

[halifax08]

It has been on the cards for a long time. Not really sure heisto blame, but at the same time couldn't see him taking club any further. Bigger question is, who will replace him that can take club on.

[tenacres]

www.eastleighfc.com/club-statement-ben-strevens/

Confirmed by Eastleigh FC

[sotonspitfire]

Not sure how I feel about this at all

[nkc]

Isn't that 3 of the last 4 managers leaving after a loss to Dover. With the odd one out leaving to become Dover Manager. Or have I missed someone.

I think its a very unfortunate loss, I honestly believe the management team have done as well as can be expected around the budget constraints they have. As I understand it around 250k a year less than a couple of seasons ago. They have found some very good youngsters with Atkinson and Tomlinson going to Championship clubs and House to League One. Although the Academy is successful against other academies there is still too big a gap between that level and first team level to see it prove beneficial National League wise.

People have een screaming for a prolific scorer all season but when you see Stockport pay 200k for Madden, Wrexham over half a million for Palmer and Mullin there is no way we are within a sniff of these type of transactions let alone most of the top marksman at other National League sides.

[ballboy]

Gutted for him as he was a good servant to the club as player and manager but recent results and particularly yesterday’s was the final straw. Hopefully a new manager along with some new players will turn things around for us.

[hantslondoner]

First of all, I'm disappointed. All the best to Strevs, and thank you for all the good times at the Silverlake, player and manager.

Secondly, I'm a bit puzzled. What is expected of the manager at the moment?

With a mid-table squad, we were achieving that comfortably until the recent run, when there have been some tough away games. Anyone (on the board or on the forum) is living in cloud-cuckoo land if they think we should be challenging for the top 5 with this squad and budget.
I agree with others that some of his tactics (use of subs) and team selection (if House is good enough to be worth a move to Lincoln, have we not been using him properly?) left a bit to be desired. But, given the league and our budget, I'm not convinced anyone else will do much better. Wonder if Strevs asked the question: 'now that Ben House has gone to an EFL club, what funding is there for a replacement?' and didn't like the answer?
Yes, the result yesterday was probably decisive if they wanted him to go, and the first thing that must be sorted out is the away form. I've been pretty impressed with most of the home results, but when it comes to games away from the Silverlake... that needs to be sorted out PDQ. Wonder if the run of away games (and defeats) damaged morale that much?

Clearly the season has been given up now (Hampshire Senior Cup excluded - would be nice to win that!) and maybe Jason will get a free hit for the rest of the season since I think we're not far off being safe already, given the state of the bottom three. He needs some managerial experience at this level, and this would be a good chance for him. 

Long-term, is the board getting more ambitious? Have we got the money/backing to do so? As I said, I don't think we'll get many better managers in unless we can promise them something. Or is someone like Jason seen as the future, and we continue to develop even more young players (ours and others) under his tutelage?

Interesting times.... starting with a home game against one of the big spenders who might also have an issue with their manager.

Obviously I know nothing about what is going on within the club. Hopefully we will find out more soon. 

[tenacres]

Feels like a sad day, Ben Strevens was a likeable guy and at 3 years and 2 months in the hotseat, our longest serving manager in the hot seat since Paul Doswell (not far off 2 decades ago).

Many people have said he was probably acheiving about par in terms of budget against league performace which sounds like a fair comment. He can probably count himself a bit unlucky to lose his job. Be interesting to see if another job comes up in the national league or national league south for him. At the moment the idea of Strevens managing someone else feels very odd.

But what next for Eastleigh?

Well I think its quite a good time to be in the market for a new manager. Our position in next years league is all but guaranteed and we have virtually no chance of making the playoffs. So we have time (if needed) to make a decision and if things go badly wrong in the next few weeks its not the end of the world.

I remember when the Eastleigh job came up before in 2016/2017 there were about 80 applicants of which about half had decent experience in league 2/conference which would be an obvious starting place. Or do we already have someone in mind for the job? Possibly.

Watch this space...

[nobadspitfire]

A very sad day. Mutual consent can cover any number of scenarios of which we can only guess. Is new investment in the offing? Certainly, at the moment we are not in a position to compete financially with many other clubs in the league and mid table is about where we deserve to be. Time will tell what happens with the club next.

[hantslondoner]

Inviting applications for new manager now.

BT Sport said that Neil Smith, who did a good job at Bromley, was in the frame.