A bizarre text message from a league manager telling eight of his players to stay away from pre-season training has created a huge storm.
Players at League One side Preston North End have called in the PFA following manager Graham Westley’s latest attempt to push them out of the club.
Sportsmail can reveal that Westley sent the text to eight of the players he wants out, telling them to stay away from first team training and that he expects them to be gone by the start of the season.
The players are understood to include midfielders Barry Nicholson, Paul Coutts and striker Iain Hume while another, German forward Juvhel Tsoumou, had his contract cancelled by mutual consent this week. Coutts and Hume are considered to be two of
the club’s best players.
The text is blunt in its delivery. Westley, who released 14 players at the end of the season and transfer-listed seven, has continually clashed with his squad since being appointed manager in January, even declaring: ‘I’ve had to tread
carefully around some of the most mediocre standards I’ve ever seen in my life.’
Here it is: Westley's text message in full
In April he claimed four of his squad leaked his team and tactics to Sheffield Wednesday ahead of their 2-0 defeat at Hillsborough and threatened disciplinary action backed by chairman Peter Ridsdale. No action was taken after intervention from the PFA and the accusation was vehemently denied by the players.
Hume later said on Twitter: ‘Can’t see [it], and hopefully [I’m] proven right, that any of my team mates would divulge info[rmation] like that.’ Westley said: ‘It’s a difficult place, our club and our dressing room. If they’d have seen the real me, we probably would have had a big fall-out and there could have been a real problem at the club.’
Westley, 44, who won successive promotions from the Blue Square Bet Premier to League One with Stevenage, has managed Preston for 21 games, winning just three, drawing 10 and losing eight.
He has recruited 12 new players since the end of the season and this week pointedly said: ‘The players I’ve brought in have the hunger, thirst and desire to win. Their attitude towards the team and club is positive and professional.’
A Preston spokesman said: ‘We have a number of players who have indicated that they wish to move to another club and a number who have been transfer listed by the club.
‘These players have been given an extra week off before returning for training to see if they find new clubs. Once they return they will be partaking in an organised pre-season training regime organised by the manager and his coaching staff, which was communicated to all players affected by way of the club’s usual means of contacting its players.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2169972/Graham-Westley-texts-players-turn-Preston-training.html
Think we all know by now he's a lunatic, but like at Chelsea under AVB, player power was threatening to take over.
Players at League One side Preston North End have called in the PFA following manager Graham Westley’s latest attempt to push them out of the club.
Sportsmail can reveal that Westley sent the text to eight of the players he wants out, telling them to stay away from first team training and that he expects them to be gone by the start of the season.
The players are understood to include midfielders Barry Nicholson, Paul Coutts and striker Iain Hume while another, German forward Juvhel Tsoumou, had his contract cancelled by mutual consent this week. Coutts and Hume are considered to be two of
the club’s best players.
The text is blunt in its delivery. Westley, who released 14 players at the end of the season and transfer-listed seven, has continually clashed with his squad since being appointed manager in January, even declaring: ‘I’ve had to tread
carefully around some of the most mediocre standards I’ve ever seen in my life.’
Here it is: Westley's text message in full
In April he claimed four of his squad leaked his team and tactics to Sheffield Wednesday ahead of their 2-0 defeat at Hillsborough and threatened disciplinary action backed by chairman Peter Ridsdale. No action was taken after intervention from the PFA and the accusation was vehemently denied by the players.
Hume later said on Twitter: ‘Can’t see [it], and hopefully [I’m] proven right, that any of my team mates would divulge info[rmation] like that.’ Westley said: ‘It’s a difficult place, our club and our dressing room. If they’d have seen the real me, we probably would have had a big fall-out and there could have been a real problem at the club.’
Westley, 44, who won successive promotions from the Blue Square Bet Premier to League One with Stevenage, has managed Preston for 21 games, winning just three, drawing 10 and losing eight.
He has recruited 12 new players since the end of the season and this week pointedly said: ‘The players I’ve brought in have the hunger, thirst and desire to win. Their attitude towards the team and club is positive and professional.’
A Preston spokesman said: ‘We have a number of players who have indicated that they wish to move to another club and a number who have been transfer listed by the club.
‘These players have been given an extra week off before returning for training to see if they find new clubs. Once they return they will be partaking in an organised pre-season training regime organised by the manager and his coaching staff, which was communicated to all players affected by way of the club’s usual means of contacting its players.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2169972/Graham-Westley-texts-players-turn-Preston-training.html
Think we all know by now he's a lunatic, but like at Chelsea under AVB, player power was threatening to take over.
