Director of football to work above a newly-appointed head coach at Cheltenham Town following departure of Darrell Clarke to Barnsley
Gary Johnson, a former manager of Cheltenham Town, is expected to take on the role of director of football.
Following boss Darrell Clarke’s move to Barnsley, the news was released.
The 68-year-old Johnson will supervise the next head coach.
After leaving the Gulls at Whaddon Road in August 2018, he managed Torquay United in the National League South the previous season.
Former Robins captain Aaron Downes, who became Torquay’s interim manager following Johnson’s exit on February 22, was his number two at Plainmoor.
The incredibly skilled Johnson has also coached Northampton Town, Yeovil Town (two stints), Bristol City, Peterborough United, Cambridge United, and the Latvian national team. He has overseen over 1,200 games and earned six promotions overall.
Based in Portishead, close to Bristol, Johnson took over at Cheltenham near the end of the 2014–15 League Two season, however in the final seven games, he was unable to prevent relegation.
The team was completely rebuilt in one summer, and he finished the season with 101 points in the National League to lead the team back into the EFL at the first attempt.
In their first season back in League Two, Cheltenham came in 21st, with Johnson missing the last few games due to a triple heart bypass surgery.
After getting better, he oversaw a 17th-place result in 2017–18 and signed Mo Eisa from Greenwich Borough.
After Eisa joined Lee Johnson’s Bristol City for £1.5 million, the son of Gary, he went on to become the club’s most successful outbound move ever.
Following four games in the 2018–19 season, Johnson was fired after allowing one point in an away loss to Macclesfield.
As soon as the last whistle blew at Moss Rose, he was fired.
Micky Moore was the previous director of football at Cheltenham until he departed to join Shrewsbury Town in the summer.
Gloucestershire Live has learned that, whether Clarke stayed in charge or not, a new DoF was scheduled to be implemented; however, the team is now planning to go back to a “player trading” model, in which young players are signed with the goal of developing them and then selling them on.
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