Salford City’s star-powered ownership duo, David Beckham and Gary Neville, have decided to part company with head coach Karl Robinson with immediate effect.
The decision comes on the heels of a season that saw the Ammies achieve their best-ever finish in the English Football League and reach the Wembley final.
Robinson, formerly at the helm of MK Dons and Oxford United, guided Salford to a fourth-place finish in League Two—the club’s highest league standing to date.
However, missing out on automatic promotion by a solitary point to Cambridge United proved costly. A subsequent defeat in the play-off lottery ended their hopes of climbing to League One.
In an official statement released on social media, the club said: “Karl has left his position as Head Coach with immediate effect. Throughout his time at Salford City, he has acted with professionalism and integrity, working tirelessly on behalf of the club. We wish him every success in the future.”
Robinson’s two-and-a-half-year spell included 132 matches and 60 victories. When he took over, the side languished in 20th place; he steadied the ship and turned them into genuine promotion contenders. Yet a painful run of five losses in six games last January ultimately dented their automatic promotion push.
Following the Wembley defeat, Robinson was forthright in his assessment: “I feel we’ve let people down. Not for the last ten months—we’ve been nothing short of magnificent—but today, too many players didn’t turn up. We were beaten by the better team.”
Despite that “magnificent” ten-month effort, Beckham and Neville appear eager to accelerate Salford’s ascent.
The lingering disappointment of a final-day draw against 22nd-placed Crawley seems to have sealed Robinson’s fate in the boardroom.
