Stale Solbakken: I would have got it right

Solbakken was told of his sacking by chief executive Jez Moxey during a phone call the manager had made to him about transfers shortly after his post-match press conference following Saturday's 1-0 shock FA Cup exit to non-league Luton.

It's understood the 44-year-old, who was on a one-year rolling contract, will receive his year's salary, estimated at £750,000, as compensation.

But it hasn't softened the blow of losing his job.

"I feel so sorry, I have never felt so bad, because I love working here, and because there will be much better times ahead and I will not be part of it," Solbakken told the Express & Star.

"I'm very, very disappointed to have lost my job at this time.

"I feel down because Bjorn Sigurdarson, Tongo Doumbia, Georg Margreitter, Bakary Sako and Razak Boukari will be very good players in England, together with the established players.

"The signs now are beginning to look better with Jamie O'Hara and Slawomir Peszko returning, Dave Edwards not far from coming back and Georg Margreitter ready to fight it out with the two centre-backs, and, with two or three new faces in the January window, we could suddenly have been looking at half a new team.

"That would have helped the team progress and make the competition healthier.

"I never had that luxury of being able to pick my best players, and if we could have brought in three or four more to complement them, we'd have had a far better chance.

"Clubs and people who have success together come through these bad times and get better.

"I don't think it's fair but I understand this is an 'easy fix' and I'm trying to deal with that."

Solbakken revealed how he discovered he had lost the faith of owner Steve Morgan.

"Jez had planned to speak to me directly but I called him because I wanted to have a meeting or two in the coming days about transfer activity," he said.

"We talked a bit but I understood very quickly that we weren't singing the same song and I was told the bad news by Jez.

"But I thought that was a fair way of doing it."

Solbakken, however, admitted the conversation he had with owner Steve Morgan – the man who hired and fired him – was much more tense.

"That was a hard conversation – I very much disagreed with Steve, but it's his club and I respect his decision because performances lately, especially the last four after Blackpool, haven't been good enough," he added.

"We disagreed very strongly on the way forward – he felt I couldn't continue and thinks I'm not the right man, and I think I am."