New manager 'must respect Exeter City DNA' says Grecians president Julian Tagg
- Published
Matt Taylor took over as Exeter City manager in June 2018 and led them to promotion to League One last season
Exeter City president Julian Tagg says a new manager will have to be able to work within the club's fan-owned model.
Matt Taylor was unveiled as Rotherham United's new manager on Tuesday after two days of talks having left the Grecians after more than four years.
Exeter pride themselves on bringing young players through their academy and have no benefactor to fund them.
"We are not a secret anymore, people know what this club is about," Tagg told BBC Radio Devon.
"We will need more of the same, we have always had and appointed managers that respected the ownership of the club, but also the DNA which is about the youth, about the way we play and the way we treat everybody.
"That's what we want them to buy in to and I'm as confident as I can be that there's going to be a considerable number of people that do fit that bill."
In an open letter to supporters after his departure, Taylor said he would treasure his time at the club.
"The club has been a huge part of my life for 10 incredible years," he said.
"Firstly to give me an opportunity to play professional football at 24 years of age, then in recent times as a coach and the last four and a quarter years as your manager.
"We have been promoted three times, visited Wembley on four occasions and enjoyed some truly incredible moments. I gave you everything I had and you never wavered in your support of me.
"I feel the club is in the best shape possible, I would not have left it any other way. The club is special in so many ways but you are the constant, the unity and the beating heart of everything the club is."
'We're not disregarding anybody'
Julian Tagg was part of the group that originally took Exeter City into Trust ownership
Under Taylor, Exeter have played a passing style of football with players such as Joel Randall, Cheick Diabate, Josh Key and Alex Hartridge coming through the academy and becoming first-team regulars.
The club sold Randall for £1m in the summer of 2021, the latest in a long line of players who have left Exeter's academy for big fees including Ollie Watkins and Ethan Ampadu.
Whilst Taylor was promoted from within Exeter's set-up - he was under-23s coach before succeeding Paul Tisdale as manager in June 2018 - Tagg says there will be an open application process this time around.
"The bottom line is very simple, we're not disregarding anybody," he said.
"There'll be some people that have got Premier League experience, some with Championship, there'll be some with none.
"It will genuinely be open and every situation will come with pluses and minuses - continuity will be one, but experience will be another, so it'll be up to the group of people that do the interview and so on to decide what the best thing is.
"Matt was very close to ideal, but at the beginning he had no experience at all, that was the downside of it, but he soon found that and picked it up with the people we put around him and we would expect to be the case again, so it really is an open book."
'It's really important that we make the right decision'
Kevin Nicholson (left) and Jon Hill are in temporary charge at Exeter City
Exeter beat Southampton Under-21s in the Papa Johns Trophy on Tuesday in their first game since Taylor's departure.
Academy boss Kevin Nicholson - a former Torquay United manager - and first-team coach and lead professional development phase coach Jon Hill took charge of the side in a 2-1 win at St James Park and will lead things until a new manager is found.
"I'd like to do it today or tomorrow, but that's not going to happen," Tagg said of the timescale to find a new manager and assistant after Taylor's deputy Wayne Carlisle followed him to South Yorkshire.
"I think the important thing here is you'd like to do it as quick as you can, but if it takes longer and it takes what people perceive to take too long, it's really important that we make the right decision and we take the time to do that.
"If in the short term that's an issue, then so be it, it won't be comfortable. People will criticise, but that won't be the first time and it's something we're used to.
"The important thing is to take enough time to make the right decision and I have no pre-conceived idea of what that amount of time will be.
"I'd like to think it'll be a short period, a couple of weeks, but it could be longer than that, but we shall see. It'll depend on the applicants and how it all fits together."