WHEN players decide to turn down the offer of a new contract to move elsewhere for less money, something isn’t right.

And when those departing players tell the club’s decision-makers that one of their main reasons for leaving is because they are ‘not convinced the coaching is right’, it must set the alarm bells ringing.

That has certainly been the case for Cecil Duckworth and his Warriors boardroom colleagues and it ultimately led them to decide it was time to dispense with the services of head coach Richard Hill.

However, Duckworth, Dave Allen and Co took this on the chin and have moved fast to arrest the slide by appointing Dean Ryan as director of rugby while, as today’s back page exclusive confirms, the club are also set to appoint a full-time attack coach. The times at Sixways, they are a changin’.

“It has been a difficult time,” admitted Warriors’ executive chairman Duckworth. “Both Richard and Charlie (Little) are nice people, who have worked very hard for this club.

“But we had to think whether they could deliver us to where we need to be — challenging at the top end of the league, not the bottom.

“I think we are a better side than we were last year, but we came to the conclusion that if there was someone out there who could either help or replace them, then we couldn’t leave things as they were.

“We have lost too many of our young players — the likes of Matt Kvesic, Matt Mullan and even Joe Carlisle — and they told me they weren’t convinced we had our coaching right.

“These departures were big negatives for us and for the supporters, but the fact is we are disappointed too often and we don’t seem to be moving forward as the likes of Exeter have done.

“We wondered if a director of rugby could come in over the top of Richard, but we thought together that would never work. Bringing in someone like Dean, he wouldn’t want his hands tied like that and probably wouldn’t have come.

“Dean came to my notice when I saw he was coaching the Scotland forwards during the Six Nations and I wondered if he wanted to get back into front-line rugby. That is what started it and it all happened fairly quickly.

“I had a meeting with Dean and he said he was tempted by the challenge of waking this sleeping giant and he is a person I like a lot.

“He has impressed the rest of the board too and gradually we came to a deal.”

On departing managing director Little, Duckworth revealed that now Hockley Investments Limited have the controlling interest at Sixways, they wanted to bring in their own man at the top of the organisation.

Duckworth added: “We had been looking to change Charlie for a while.

“When I brought Charlie into the club, my plan was always to train him up to be managing director, but the general feeling on the board is that he is still a young man and not mature enough to take us forward, so we thought a change would be better now.

“Someone who we felt could do a very good job is now available and he will be announced in the next few days. He is more mature and experienced than Charlie and we felt the combination of him and Dean will be the right formula for moving this club forward.”