September 2025 (Page 4)

The shock resignation of manager Danny Webb just ten days after his appointment as Yeovil Town manager, our Ian spoke to the club’s Chief Strategy Advisor Nicholas Brayne about the reasons behind the departure and what happens next at Huish Park. You can listen to his interview on our special podcast or read it in full here.

IP: What has the last 24 hours leading up to the resignation of Danny Webb as manager been like?

NB: Everyone has been bitterly disappointed and shocked. Danny was selected after a process which took several weeks and I think everyone got an idea of why he was selected, the way he came across, the way he interacted with the media, fans and the people here. He’s a very personable character and he has got a good track record in football, so it is easy to see why we felt he was a really good fit for Yeovil. He hit the ground running last week and then he has now decided to step away from the dug out for personal reasons.

I had a number of calls with Danny on Sunday to make sure he was okay to understand the process of how he had come to that decision. We talked about his welfare, his mental health, what he was thinking, so a lot of that was about making sure he was okay on a human level which I am pleased to say he is. Then we were trying to understand the rationale of how we got to this point which is a really difficult process.

IP: Can you explain the decision behind the appointment of Richard Dryden as manager until the end of the season?

NB: I truly understand how fans react to things, so it is a very fair question. If we step back to Spring and you think about the disruption this club has faced with the takeover, the issues of last season with (the new ownership) coming in to the process very late, Mark Cooper’s departure, the Gateshead game and the process of identifying Danny and the real sense of shock that Danny was only here a week, then I think you can see that there’s a real sense of shock.

I left Norfolk at 2am to be here with the staff, Stuart (Robins, Executive Chairman) went to the training ground to be with the players. A lot of this is just about being with people at the moment and there is a real sense on a human level of shock, frustration, sadness and what we felt we needed was a period of calm and stability. It is a bit like being the captain of a shop which is listing, what is the first thing you do? Sometimes the best thing to do is stop and assess, so that is where we are at at the moment.

In the four games which Richard was in charge was a really good, stabilising factor behind the scenes, he is really good with people, really good with the board, really good with the players and that is what we need now. We need someone who is going to take time and give us time and that is why that Richard is taking the helm until the end of the season.

This whole process of trying to identify and get the right manager, we have just run that process. From the perspective of energy, focus and making sure we are running in the right direction, to run that process again you would be talking about another four weeks (of uncertainty). I think the fans and the players would get restless, so we are saying ‘let’s calm this situation down’, Richard is in charge, in him we are going to trust. I think it give everyone a sense of direction.

IP: You have said that Stuart has spoken to the players today, what has their reaction been to it?

NB: They are professionals and they are a really good bunch of lads. I have been here at Huish Park with the staff and Stuart has been with the players at the training ground and from my conversations with Stuart the players have taken the news as the professionals they are. They listened, they understand, and they know that the badge comes before anything else, so we go and fight for the badge at Aldershot and at Altrincham. There has been some honest soul-searching over the past 24 hours and the one thing that reaffirms the decision we have taken is that the players wanted certainty and this has given them a degree of certainty.

IP: After the game at Tamworth on Saturday, Danny Webb spoke about wanting to recruit new players. Is his decision down to the level of support he got from the ownership to do that?

NB: Danny was very much supported, he knew there was money to spend, we had put a recruitment strategy in place with Danny and we were working through that. Andrew (Oluwabori) joined on Friday and there were other conversations going on led by Danny with all of us supporting him, I personally had a number of conversations with agents of players we wanted to bring in to the squad and there was money there for Danny to do what he wanted to do to make us more competitive on the pitch. That is exactly the same case for Richard.

To be clear, when you hear people say ‘has he walked away from the club because there’s been a disagreement?’ There has not been a single disagreement with Danny and he will say that the ownership group backed him every step of the way whatever he thought he needed for this club to succeed and as a human being with what he has gone through over the last 48 hours.

IP: There is obviously one fewer members of staff on the coaching side now, will you look at adding anyone else – possibly in a Director of Football role?

NB: The ownership group will do whatever it needs to do whatever it needs to do to ensure we have the right personnel and resources on the pitch and in the dug-out which is appropriate to the challenge we are facing now. That means another slug of investment capital coming in to the club, that was what was already agreed under Danny and that is exactly what we are going to do now.

IP: The mantra of the new ownership group has been built on three Cs – calmness, competitiveness and community – where do all of those stand now?

NB: In terms of calmness, I fully accept it does not feel calm from an external perspective in terms of how we have started the season and I get that. Internally apart from some of the frustrations we have felt, we have actually been very rational, calm and consistent in terms of the way we have gone about our business. But I definitely understand this does not feel or look calm.

The community stuff is going great guns behind the scenes in terms of what we want to do and I think in the fullness of time that will be a little clearer. I am not going to sit here and lie to you, what we have seen so far this season is not competitive, so that is an area we need to work on.

Everyone in football wants things to happen overnight, I want things to happen overnight. I had my family down here until the Gateshead game and I remember the feeling I had at the end of it. Just think of the week we have just had with that last minute winner against Woking and I remember driving up the M3 and thinking ‘this is brilliant’ and here I am now sitting here with you and feeling this is not so brilliant. I am feeling the same emotion as fans, I think the three Cs and our ownership will have to be judged over a longer period of time, we are in our infancy and it is going to take time to tinker to get the foundations right and that is what we are doing at the moment. But one of the things that I think is really important is to take stock, think ‘how have we got here’ not just in terms of our own tenure but what has gone before and how do we go about getting this big juggernaut going in the right direction and using that investment we have got to make sure all our energy is going in the right direction. There is a lot happening behind-the-scenes which would evidence we are heading in the right direction, but I can understand that fans think it is looking painfully show.