Keighley Cougars allege sacked coach refused player signings in extraordinary statement
The owners of League 1 side Keighley Cougars have launched an extraordinary statement on their now former head coach Matt Foster – after revealing in great length their reasons for sacking him.
Keighley sacked Foster on Tuesday afternoon despite sitting top of League 1, and having lost just one league game all season. However, in a wide-ranging statement the club’s owners alleged, among other things, that Foster refused to engage with or disagreed with a number of signings made by director of rugby Jake Webster.
The Cougars say they made a mistake in refusing to disclose the full details as to why they took the decision to part company with Foster: but have now put that right after a lengthy statement made on Tuesday evening.
They said fan abuse has led them to offer a full, detailed explanation. “The level of hostility in the last few hours has crossed a line, and we are no longer willing to take this level of abuse,” they said.
“So, we will explain further why we took the decision to part with Matt, and hopefully you will see there is more to running a club than what is seen on the surface.
“In the close-season Matt returned to Australia and recruitment was left to Jake Webster who worked hard to build us a great squad within budget. On returning to the UK, there was a level of hostility to Jake from Matt about signings he had made.”
Furthermore, the club’s owners actually named several of these players – stating that Foster did not agree with the decision by Webster to bring fullback Brandon Pickersgill to the club, as one example.
Mitch Revell and the recent signing of George Flanagan were also singled out as transfers Foster did not agree with, according to the Keighley hierarchy.
They continued: “Jake agreed terms with other Championship players, which Matt refused to engage with, and the club lost out as a result.
“This reached a crescendo in May when Jake proposed signing George Flanagan. Matt refused to engage with it. Jake came to us asking for permission to overrule the coach and sign George.
“We agreed with Jake that George would be a massive benefit to the club. Jake advised Matt that the board had given him permission to sign George, at which stage Matt threatened to resign if the signing happened. We signed George, and after his first game Matt agreed we had a star and he would eat ‘humble pie’.
“Jake negotiated to sign Mitch Revell for the club. Matt did not engage, and it took 3 months to get Mitch to the club, only because Jake, at the end-of-his-tether sought board approval to overrule Matt’s reluctance to engage with Mitch.”
Keighley then claimed that a meeting with Foster and Webster appeared to clear the air, before again going into extraordinary, unheard detail about matters behind the scenes.
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“We hoped things would improve. They didn’t. Jake would call us to complain he was getting no communication from the head coach.
“Jake requested training schedules so he could check on deliverables, these were never provided. Jake requested a plan for progression of the season, these were never provided.
“Jake would meet with senior players and assistant coaches, in his role as Director of Rugby, to get feedback on how things were going for them at the club, and if there’s anything we as a club can do to make their time here better. Matt took strong objection to this, causing further issues.”
The Cougars then said that after Sunday’s draw with Rochdale, things reached a head. But they did not stop there: they claimed that senior players and staff advised them that changing the coach ‘might be necessary’.
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They said: “After the game, Matt advised us that he could no longer work with Jake, and gave an ultimatum that either Jake goes or he goes.
“We spent the rest of the evening asking opinions from senior players and staff, the feedback was that training was poor, strategy was lacking, and that a change in head coach might be necessary.
“Therefore on Monday we had a board meeting where we had to face the reality that things were not right, and that things were getting worse. We knew it would be controversial, but as we have the best interests of this club at heart, we agreed we had to part with Matt.”
And as if that weren’t enough, the Cougars then offered an ultimatum to supporters, saying it is time for them to ‘decide what they want’ for Keighley.
They said: “We hope you can consider what we have to deal with behind the scenes. If the fans want a club that is mid-table League One, then we can deliver that – it will be much less stressful and significantly less expensive. We personally want better. It’s time for you all to decide what you want for this club.”
Webster will take interim charge of Cougars while they hunt for a replacement to Foster.
But incredibly, Foster wasn’t the only previous Keighley head coach to be subject to public scrutiny: with the Cougars also revealing why they sacked Rhys Lovegrove last year.
“In 2023 we parted ways with the previous coach,” they said. “We kept the reasons why private and put out a generic statement of it being ‘results based’. We took a lot of heat for this, with fans understandably questioning why.
“We can tell you now, that in firing a coach means dealing with a human who deserves to be protected so he can rebuild his career. We therefore kept back the various reasons why.
“The then coach was causing levels of disruption behind the scenes that no employer would tolerate. We regret we kept it under wraps, as the coach got a free-pass and the club suffered for that.”
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