Before I delve into that, I guess I should say I believe Ashton would have accepted a team manager as a subsidiary role to him as head coach, and that Johnson would only take the team manager role if he was the boss of the coach. It certainly would make for a rather tense situation if you wanted to have them both, and one or the other was destined for disappointment. Given that, it is possible that Ashton saw, or was told, which way the wind was blowing as so stepped aside. Johnson's statement that he feels for Ashton and the difficult position he was in was a nice touch - whether it came from a personal touch, or was a sign of managerial professionalism.
However, to misquote Buffy, I "have but-face. You know, the face that means you're going to say 'But...'" And I do.
But, if Brian Ashton agreed to step aside to let Johnson in, why wasn't it announced that way? Unless all the media conspired to cut the footage that way, the presentation was
Ashton is fired and offered a consolation position (almost as an afterthought), Jonno is our new saviour.
It has left a rather bitter taste in everyone's mouth, except probably Jonno and perhaps Ashton, Andrew and the board of the RFU. How hard is it to make an announcement that says something more like:
After deliberation the RFU determined that they wanted a team manager responsible to X with the coach reporting to him. Brian Ashton was not willing to remain as coach in this structure and has agreed to step down. He is currently considering a role as director of the England Academy. In the position of team manager we have...I'm sure the PR people could spin it into a somewhat more sexy statement, but even if they didn't, it's a good punchy story. It's talking about a change at the top, which always has impact. It's making it clear that, whether or not Ashton is really happy, he at least got involved in the process and made a choice rather than being pushed. It might have been the choice between going gracefully and being pushed, but he made the choice. It makes the RFU and their appointed officials look like they have made a hard decision, but they have remained principled to some extent and have taken into consideration their earlier offer to Ashton to stay for a year. They might even have managed to get both sides to agree that, since Johnson can't take over until the summer, Ashton would stay in charge for the summer tour - as it is, we'll probably have a care-taker for the summer tour, then a change at the top and another new coach before the autumn internationals. This may, in 3 years time, not matter, but it's not going to look good to the players between now and say, next year's Six Nations. It's not going to look good to the press and the public either, unless Johnson manages to find a wonder coach and appoint him, and England turn it around as spectacularly as Wales did under Gatland and Edwards. But, how many such coaches are there in the world?
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