Changes at the top
Liam Hopkins & Devin Clark
I suppose it shouldn’t have really been a surprise, given the season that the Aviators had had, but it still caused a stir in the coffee shops & bars the morning the news broke. The morning papers splashed it all over the front pages.
Liam Hopkins and Devin Clark sacked by Aviators
Sources close to the Front Office say the sackings were a complete surprise to them. Apparently, Hopkins was working normally at his desk when he was summonsed to the GM’s suite. Five minutes later Hopkins returned to the main office, cleared out his desk, and walked out without a word to anyone.
The next day GM Laverick issued a terse statement ”When we started approaching some of our targeted free agents, it very quickly became clear that a number, a considerable number, of them were telling us that they couldn’t sign for us as they couldn’t get on with our manager. That was the final black mark to be honest as far as I was concerned. Hopkins performance wasn’t of the highest standard we expect and then to find that he was jeopardising our free agent plans meant he had to go. To be honest if we’d have had the money to pay him off, he probably would have been gone a few weeks ago.
The Clark dismissal was a somewhat different situation, we had had no cause to doubt his work, but he came out strongly against the dismissal of his close friend Liam Hopkins. Words were exchanged and I felt that I couldn’t work with Devin anymore. We have already offered contracts to two individuals and will update you all as and when we have further news.”
Both men had only joined Wichita at the start of 2041 and presided over the worst year in Aviator’s brief history. They had been however long-time colleagues of former GM Stu Hopkins, all three of them spent considerable time together at Louisville. GM Hopkins had signed a considerable number of former Louisville staff and players during his seven years in Wichita, in the early years it was thought to be good business for the expansion Aviators, but many proved to be on their last legs. There was an undercurrent of murmurings around the Wichita social media that concentrating on the older former Sluggers might well have held the franchise back.
