Forest Green Rovers to be co‑managed by three coaches after Robbie Savage exit

Forest Green Rovers will abandon the single‑manager format for its first team and place matchday and training responsibility in the hands of three senior coaches, the club announced after Robbie Savage's departure.

Shared leadership

Following Savage's exit on 2 October to join Peterborough United, owner Dale Vince said he did not want to rush into appointing a new manager. Instead, the first team will be led collectively by Josh Bowen, Jan Klukowski and Jonathan Gould, who will run training, prepare match plans and jointly decide on team selection and tactics.

The change is being presented as an experiment rather than a permanent restructuring; club officials described it as a way to bring multiple perspectives into decision‑making and to avoid what Vince characterised as the drawbacks of concentrating authority in a single manager.

Forest Green Rovers — widely known for its all‑vegan club policy — currently competes in the fifth tier of English football. The club said the new arrangement will test whether the squad can operate successfully without a traditional sole head coach.

Vince framed the move as a critique of the typical managerial model in the sport, arguing that coaches with outsized egos do not always make the best calls. The trio will work together on the club's day‑to‑day football operations while the board assesses the experiment's results.

The decision comes as the club seeks stability after Savage left and as it evaluates different ways to structure its technical staff ahead of the coming fixtures.

Photo: press material from the event