Plymouth Argyle have parted company with manager Carl Fletcher following their New Years’ Day defeat against Bristol Rovers.
As a player, Carl Fletcher should be remembered as a Plymouth Argyle great.
During his four-year stint as a player and manager with the Pilgrims, Fletcher captained the Pilgrims with great distinction, winning the club’s Player of the Year award in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.
However, these were not particular happy times for the Pilgrims as during these two seasons they experienced back-to-back relegations as they fell from the Championship to League Two in consecutive seasons and also experienced a lengthy spell in Administration, which threatened the very existence of the club.
Fletcher was one of many of Argyle’s playing and non-playing staff who were forced to defer their wages for seven months in order to keep the club alive.
It was as a result of the aforementioned circumstances that saw the manager’s job thrust upon him following the departure of former Everton and England midfielder Peter Reid.
Despite conducting himself in an impeccable manner, Reid couldn’t arrest the Pilgrims decline and at one stage, he even dipped into his own pocket to pay the club’s heating bill and even made his 1986 FA Cup runners-up medal available for auction.
After only securing one point from the Pilgrims’ opening nine league games of the 2011-12 season, Reid was dismissed and Fletcher installed as caretaker manager with Romain Larrieu and Kevin Nancekivell assisting him.
In his first game in charge, Fletcher oversaw a 2-0 victory over Macclesfield and was installed as manager on a permanent basis once James Brent’s takeover of the club was completed.
However, the road to league survival proved to be a rocky one as the Pilgrims remained bottom of the league until the beginning of December and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Southern League side Stourbridge in the first round.
He then set about strengthening his squad as experienced individuals such as Darren Purse, Maxime Blanchard and Nick Chadwick were recruited.
In January transfer window of 2012, former club captain Paul Wotton returned to Home Park from Yeovil Town and Fletcher also made a number of astute loan signings, including Ashley Hemmings and Alex MacDonald.
With the new signings on board, Argyle then started to look like a different team and they proved to be difficult to beat at home as they only lost three times at Home Park from January onwards.
Survival was secured in their penultimate home game of the season in a 1-1 draw with Oxford United and Fletcher could rightfully claim to have accomplished the mission that he set out to achieve.
However, the Pilgrims were unable to build on this during the 2012-13 campaign.
At the turn of the year they now find themselves in 21st place, the same league position where they finished the previous season, with only seven league wins and another FA Cup exit at the hands of non-league opposition, this time to Dorchester Town.
With the nature of football management being a results driven business, Fletcher paid the price, as the Pilgrims began 2013 with a defeat against Bristol Rovers, with his dismissal.
Following his departure, Fletcher now joins a list that includes Dave Kemp, Kevin Hodges and Paul Mariner, all of whom were great servants to Argyle as players, but failed to emulate those achievements when they were appointed as manager.
