The new owners at Torquay have put ex-Bull Chris Hargreaves and his coaching staff on gardening leave after they turned down a request for 'a significant pay cut' for the trio.
A club statement reads: Torquay United’s first-team coaching staff has been placed on gardening leave by the club. Manager Chris Hargreaves, his assistant Lee Hodges and coach Kenny Veysey were unable to reach an agreement with the new consortium after discussions on Friday and Saturday.
Torquay United changed ownership on Friday and the consortium led by Dean Edwards was forced into a position of offering the coaching staff an opportunity to either take a significant pay cut or be placed on gardening leave.
In the end, the two sides were unable to agree on the right way forward, both in terms of their individual contracts and the financial constraints that will be placed on the playing side of the club next season.
Torquay United would like to place on record our sincere gratitude to three legends of the football club and it was very clear that they all wanted to see out their contracts, working to the best of their ability to help us succeed in the future, but it has now been decided that the club will move in a new direction.
Hargreaves, 43, was appointed as manager 18 months ago having previously spending three years as a player at Plainmoor. He was unable to save the club from relegation to the fifth tier, while the Gulls finished 13th in the Conference in their first season back there.