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Dover Athletic chairman Jim Parmenter strongly refutes claims from coach Steve Brown that the club had 'reneged on verbal agreements'

Steve Brown in his Dover days
Steve Brown in his Dover days

Dover Athletic chairman Jim Parmenter has strongly refuted claims from departing first-team coach Steve Brown that the club had “reneged on verbal agreements.”

Brown, who arrived at Crabble as assistant boss to Nicky Forster when the latter was appointed manager in September 2011, had his contract terminated by mutual consent this week with one more year still to run.

The 41-year-old former Charlton Athletic defender, who had his role switched to first team coach when Chris Kinnear and Jake Leberl took over from the sacked Forster in January, said: “I can’t go into details publicly but there were things that had been verbally agreed that have been reneged upon and I decided it just wasn’t worth all the misery. “

But Mr Parmenter insisted: “The club has done nothing wrong whatsoever.

“Steve was under contract and he asked for it to be cancelled by mutual consent, which it was and I’m not aware of any verbal agreements being reneged upon by the club.

“All I can say is that when Steve decided that he didn’t want to return next season, we met our contractual obligations to him in full.”

The Whites chairman suggested that frustration at not being promoted to manager after Forster’s departure could help to explain Brown’s outburst.

Mr Parmenter said: “Steve has made no secret of the fact he wants to become a manager but that wasn’t going to happen for him at Dover.

“Basically, he wanted the job when Nicky left and didn’t get it.” Brown admitted he was “desperate to manage” but added: “I had another year left on my contract and so I could have stayed at Dover next season and kept taking the money, but the club have made it virtually impossible for me to walk back in through the door at Crabble next season which, if I’m honest, is what they wanted.

“It’s a shame because I thoroughly enjoyed my first 14 or 15 months at the club but they didn’t want me there next season.

“So from Dover’s perspective, it’s a case of ‘job done’ but I think they have gone about it in completely the wrong way.”

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