It has been announced that Coventry City have sacked assistant manager Richard Shaw despite the former Sky Blues defender being assured that his job with the club was safe after Andy Thorn was sacked.
Shaw re-joined the club in June as assistant to Andy Thorn and he took over the reins as caretaker manager when Thorn lost his job. Shaw applied for the job but his record while in charge let him down with just one win in the Capital One Cup over Birmingham City followed by four successive defeats including a 4-1 defeat at Shrewsbury Town that was seen by the City supporters there as the lowest point in living memory, that left the club at the foot of league One.
When Mark Robins was appointed manager he was told he would have to work with the existing staff and that included Richard Shaw, who was told he would have a job at the club even if he wasn’t appointed as the new manager, but now, just six weeks later, he has been sacked.
Shaw made over 350 league and cup appearances for Coventry between 1995 and 2006. He left Coventry and joined Millwall in 2006 and when he retired from playing he joined their coaching staff, briefly taking over as caretaker manager in 2007.
Following the sacking of Andy Thorn after three games, Coventry City’s development director Steve Waggott made it clear that whoever took over would have to work with the existing backroom staff.
When Mark Robins was appointed as Thorn’s successor he immediately brought in Steve Taylor, with whom he had worked with while in charge at Barnsley and Rotherham, to be his first team coach. Shaw, to all appearances remained Robins’ assistant but Lee Carsley was moved from first team affairs back to the Under 21’s.
On his appointment as head coach Taylor said, “I know Lee Carsley from when I coached him at Derby and Richard Shaw has been fantastic as has Steve Ogrizovic and I’m really looking forward to working with everybody."
Shaw was not involved in Robins’ first game in charge against Carlisle, he was in the stands, but in subsequent games he has been on the bench working as assistant to Robins. However, yesterday Shaw, who who was on a three year contract which will have to be paid off, was told he was surplus to requirements at the club
Coventry City have just released a statement in which they cite the reasons for Shaw's dismissal.
Development Officer Steve Waggott said in the statement, “Mark has worked with the current staff for several weeks but had told the board on his arrival that he would review the way things were organised and the shape of the structure.