Former Blackpool man wasn’t surprised by Simon Grayson’s departure from Bloomfield Road

It comes after the 50-year-old was given the sack on Wednesday following the 3-2 defeat to Gillingham the night before.

It brings an end to Grayson’s seven-month second spell at the club, where he had overseen a dismal run of just one win from their last 12 games.

Gazette columnist Taylor-Fletcher believes that didn’t give owner Simon Sadler much of a choice.

“The writing is on the wall for any manager as soon as they start blaming external factors and blaming the players,” he said.

“It looks as though a few of the players weren’t happy and I said in last week’s column that, when you change so many players halfway through the season, then it can be a few too many.

“There’s definitely something not right there and unfortunately for Simon it’s cost him his job.

“You don’t know who is making the signings within the club, whether it was Simon or whether he’s given the club a list of what he wants and they’ve picked ones off it they think are suitable.

“Twelve players coming in, especially in January, is a big turnaround, especially when the team weren’t on the greatest run anyway.

“It wasn’t long ago the team were fourth in the league and two points off the top two, yet now they’re 15th.

“They’re just lucky they don’t need to look over their shoulders as much with the teams down there having points deducted and things like that.

“It was probably the right time to get someone in to give the new man until the end of the season to assess the players and then move forward from there.”

Taylor-Fletcher, who has already revealed to The Gazette that he is interested in taking the manager’s job, also suggested Grayson’s style of football wasn’t what the supporters wanted to see.

“The fans want someone who is going to go and play attacking football and have a go, a bit like Ian Holloway used to do when he would go and attack and try and win games,” he added.

“I’m not saying that Simon didn’t do that, but we know he’s very organised and very structured in how he plays.

“I think the fans wanted a more charismatic, dynamic manager.

“You could see even when he was appointed that some of the fans were against him already because of the style of football he played last time.”