Robins Chairman Paul Baker spoke to BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Wednesday night about the news that Town team manager was making the move from Whaddon Road to Brunton Park, Baker suggesting that Ward was in the firing line at Cheltenham anyway :
" I've been getting some very interesting calls, some very positive actually understanding the situation and some frankly in fairy-tale land. The situation with John was that the board has backed John as far as we possibly can and I think the limiting factor in all of this, as John alluded to earlier on, was the fact that the gates have remained static despite the club's success. The only way frankly of increasing your budget to sign more players is to generate more revenue. That either comes from directors or chairmen putting money in out of their pockets - which they do, or from increasing the gates.
" John made a very valid point that the gates have not increased therefore the board has not been able to give him any more money to extend the squad. That is a valid point because the major source of revenue is through the gates and as your listener has just said the people of Cheltenham don't deserve a football team because they don't support us in sufficient numbers.
" Are supporters saying that we should get ourselves into debt to enable us to have a bigger squad and a stronger squad? Of course they're not because they wouldn't want to see that happen so therefore we have to manage the situation. In terms of the players that left at the start of the season many had left before people bought season tickets but clearly there were an awful lot of players out of contract.
" We did our very best to keep those players at the club, some stayed, some didn't and some John didn't want to keep. At the start of the season we had five strikers on the books, John felt that that was enough, that was his decision and not the board's decision. He wanted to go into the season with the squad that he had, he's had money available to bring in a striker or two for weeks and months. I've said repeatedly to him, even when he signed his contract at the start of last season, if he wants something then he's got to ask for it.
" Steve Cotterill did that time and time and time again and more often than not Steve Cotterill got a yes and a positive response. To be fair to John he hadn't done that, now whether he thinks it's unfair to put pressure on the board then that might be his view. I'm saying he should put pressure on the board, if we can't find the money then we have to say - sorry John, we can't find it.
" The fans don't deserve to know the compensation figure because that it is a confidential figure between Carlisle and Cheltenham, no-one knows that outside the two clubs. All I would say is that it is a six-figure sum, a substantial six-figure sum. I think now we just have to move on, we have to accept that John has gone, I'm disappointed, we tried to keep him but we couldn't. Not for lack of trying because he had a fantastic contract with us but ultimately he decided that he did not want to stay. "
" I spoke to Keith Downing (caretaker manager) yesterday and I want Keith to bring in two quality players as soon as he possibly can but I'd said that to John months before. For whatever reason he hasn't been able to do that. I think that we need to go back here, we need first of all to thank John for what he has done because without doubt he has been our most successful manager. I think that we have to accept that he has made a decision for his career and I understand that but we now have to move on.
" That money will enable us to finance some additional players for the squad, infact it certainly will. We now need to give Keith Downing all the support that we can on a caretaker basis and see what applications now come forward for the full-time position. Actually, despite all the doom and gloom, I am pretty positive and the board is pretty positive.
" We've just had our two worst results and performances with John's squad. Now anybody who went last night or went to Doncaster will have been pretty fed up with what they saw. This team is not the finished article by any stretch of the imagination, it needs strengthening and perhaps it needs a new manager to do that. I tell you what, a lot of clubs have got rid of their manager already this season in a stronger position than we are.
" We are next to bottom of the table, we've just lost two games and played very poorly, you ask yourself if we could have got rid of him. He (Downing) is the caretaker manager but he will be applying for the position of full-time manager. To be fair we probably won't be advertising because what normally happens in these situations is that we get inundated with people applying for the job once it becomes known there is a vacancy.
" I think the first thing is that I am passionate and love Cheltenham Town Football Club. I feel just as passionately about John Ward's departure as anyone else out there but I am charged now, and the board is charged now, with taking this club further. I think that people are harshly critical of what this board has done for this club in the last ten years and I also think that people are harsh to criticise some of the previous appointments.
" We appointed Steve Cotterill - that wasn't a bad appointment, we also appointed John Ward and that wasn't too bad either and actually Bobby Gould nearly saved us from relegation, we just missed out by one point. We have got quite a good track record on managerial appointments and I am pretty confident that we will make a very good appointment this time around.
" We don't know who it will be yet but I'm confident that we will have a good manager in place. I think that will be an opportunity to say - thank you John, move on and start again afresh. The season is only nine or ten games in, there is an awful long way to go yet and an awful lot to play for. There is no way, no way at all, that we are writing off our status in this division. I think that also what we have got to do is to say to the players - are you up for this? Are you physically strong enough, are you mentally strong enough to take this club on because if not then move on. "