Joey Barton has paid tribute to the work of Kevin Bond at Bristol Rovers, but he believes he had to make the "difficult" decision of moving him on to make the club more "efficient".
Bond's departure from the Gas was confirmed by Rovers on Sunday. He joined the club as a first-team coach in August 2021, working alongside Barton and Andy Mangan in the wake of Clint Hill's departure.
But Barton made two appointments to his staff this summer, adding Glenn Whelan and Danny Ventre as first-team coaches, with Bond watching from the stands to offer a different perspective on some occasions with the Gas exceeding the number of people permitted on the bench.
Barton admits he was perhaps "guilty" of having too big a staff and he had to make a "difficult" decision for the good of the club, but he was "gutted" to see Bond leave after his contributions at The Quarters.
"He was superb," Barton said. "He came in at a tough time when Clint left and added incredible insight and value to our whole coaching group and he was ridiculously well thought of by everybody.
"But I just felt we had too many cooks and with where we’re at and how we need to do it, we needed to streamline it a little bit. It’s unfortunate for Bondy that it’s him that exits the building, but we’ve got to be efficient and effective and I don’t think we were moving as efficiently as we could.
"It’s my job to rectify that because if I don’t, ultimately, it will be my head on a platter. Gutted for Kev and he was brilliant for us, and we’ll all be incredibly thankful for the work he did here.
"We brought Danny and Whelo in and we just needed to streamline that. We were probably guilty of having too many opinions and too many chefs sometimes can confuse things.
"It was a difficult decision and it’s the difficult part of the job. You understand sometimes you’ve got to move people on, players and staff, to make the organism more healthy and to move more efficiently."
Bond has enjoyed a long coaching career, managing Bournemouth and Southend United as well as working as Harry Redknapp's assistant for many years at Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers. He has also worked at Newcastle United and West Ham United, but his memories at the Mem rank very highly for the 65-year-old.
"Last season was probably the most amazing year I’ve experienced in football," he told the club's website.
"To move from where we were at Christmas to promotion on the last day of the season was truly remarkable. I thought I’d seen most things in football but watching that seventh goal go in will stay with me forever.
"Now is the right time for me to leave. I would like to thank everyone connected with the club; Wael, a fantastic man at the helm, Joey, the staff, the players and our brilliant supporters for making my time here so memorable."
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