Carlton Palmer namedrops Notts County and Wrexham as potential reasons for Neil Harris’
Neil Harris
sacking
Eyebrows were raised last week when Harris was announced as being axed by the Gills – despite sitting in eighth position in League Two
Gillingham manager Neil Harris was let go despite his team’s decent position in the league standings, as the club wanted to go in a different direction.
Harris had a win percentage of 34.4% at Gillingham, which may not be amazing but is respectable considering the circumstances.
The playing style of other promotion favorites like Wrexham and Notts County, who focus on attacking football, may have influenced the decision to sack Harris.
The managerial merry go round in the EFL started a while ago now, but there have been some surprise departures in the last week or two.
One of those has been the exit of Gillingham manager Neil Harris, who, despite having his side just a couple of points off the automatic promotion spots, was let go of by owner Brad Galinson.
Galinson cited the club wanting to go in a ‘different direction’ as the grounds for Harris being sacked, with the Kent outfit now looking for a new head coach or manager.
What was Neil Harris’ win percentage at Gillingham?
Harris arrived in January 2022 at Gillingham with the club struggling in League One, but five wins and six draws almost saw them escape the drop zone by the end of the season.
Despite the fact that they did in-fact drop into League Two, Harris was kept on board but was somewhat hamstrung by a lack of budget, which saw the Gills drop into the bottom two of the fourth tier around the midway part of the campaign.
Some much-needed investment, though, arrived in the form of American businessman Brad Galinson, whose money and transfers saw Harris get the club back on track and they finished 17th in League Two last season.
And despite only being eighth in the table last week after their 2-0 defeat away at Crewe, the Gillingham hierarchy decided to part company with Harris, and after one match under caretaker boss Keith Millen they now sit in third spot and inside the automatic promotion places after a 2-1 win over MK Dons, which just shows that Harris was perhaps doing fine.
Harris left Gillingham with a win percentage of 34.4% – not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it was respectable enough and the timing of the axing seemed somewhat harsh.
Did Wrexham and Notts County have a part to play in Neil Harris’ Gillingham sacking?
Former England international footballer Carlton Palmer believes that the fact other promotion favourites such as Wrexham and Notts County are playing exciting football and scoring goals has played a part in Harris’ surprise departure, with Galinson wanting a better style of football at the Priestfield Stadium.
“I’m absolutely gobsmacked yet again at the sacking of another manager doing an incredible job in my opinion,” Palmer told Football League World on Gillingham’s decision to part company with Harris.
“Sat in eighth place in the league, they were only four points off the leaders Notts County, but Neil Harris has lost his job.
“Neil nearly performed a miracle for Gillingham in trying to help them escape from League One relegation when he took over at the club 20 months ago.
“The reason for his dismissal has been cited as his style of play – certain sections of the supporters have never taken to him and this has led to the owners taking action.
“Wrexham and Notts County do adopt a very attacking culture, but both of these clubs have tasted heavy defeats playing this way.
“Notts County are top and Wrexham have just come into seventh place – we all want to play attacking football, we all want to see attacking football, but managers feel under pressure to get results, so that influences the way that they play and the personnel they play.”
