British rowing's most famous son Sir Steve Redgrave has waded into the bitter feud dominating the sport after the drastic underperformance of Team GB boats at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Redgrave, who won five Olympic gold medals between 1984 and 2000, is of the opinion that Team GB's failure at the games came as a direct consequence of the decision to let Jurgen Grobler leave the setup.
Grobler masterminded extraordinary success during his 30 years involved with British rowing, winning at least one gold medal at every Olympic regatta since 1976.
Indeed, Team GB had sat comfortably atop the rowing medal table in each of the previous three Olympics.
In stark contrast to that, Team GB managed to win just two medals this time around - a bronze in the men's eight and a sliver in the men's quadruple skulls.
Grobler's exit was accompanied by that of Paul Thompson, who had been in charge of British women's rowing.
Their exits have been linked in some corners to an attempt to change the approach and culture of British rowing in order to be a less hostile environment for athletes - perhaps demonstrative of Team GB's overall shift to an unofficial 'more than medals' philosophy.
Josh Bugajski, who won bronze as part of the men's eight, said in his post-race interview that he "cracked open a bottle of champagne" when Grobler left the setup as he looked to "destroy the soul" of athletes who he took a disliking to.
Redgrave believes this shift was premature and is to blame for the downturn in fortunes with regards to medals.
He said in interview with Telegraph Sport : "It may be that the approach has gone a bit soft- if we want a soft approach, we will have to expect softer results."
Redgrave added: "Jürgen was asked to leave. As well as Paul. If you ask two of the best coaches the world has ever seen in any sport to leave, both within two years of this Olympics, then you deserve what you get.
"Not everyone can carry on for ever. Athletes have that, coaches have that, and systems have that. But you have got to move forwards.
"With the systems that we have put back in of selection panels and so forth, we’ve moved back to the ’70s and ‘80s, and we have to accept ‘70s and ‘80s results.”
Selection panels stand out as a particular bugbear of Redgrave's, who has long favoured allowing the coach alone to make the all-important decisions.
Selection in rowing is a complex issue given the unique and often intangible factors which go into forming successful teams.
Grobler's admirers, of whom there are many, feel that he had a particular knack of knowing who to pick and who to leave out.
Bugajski's comments have been dismissed by some ex-Olympic champions as blame shifting.
In response to the incendiary comments, triple Olympic gold medalist Andrew Triggs Hodge said to Bugajski on Twitter that "it's time to accept your own failings and limitations and not blame others".
Hodge's remarks represent the latest spat between Team GB Olympians past and present after Matt Rossiter and James Cracknell also became involved in a war of words.
When looking to attribute overall blame for the hugely underwhelming performance at the Tokyo regatta, Redgrave was keen to back the athletes: "The athletes aren’t to blame.
"I think we’ve got some of the best athletes in the world, and they’ve shown that year after year.
"We have tremendous funding from the Lottery. We certainly have enough finance. So where does that leave us? It’s got to be the people in charge.”
Redgrave went on to voice his concerns for the scale of the funding, which was already due to be cut from £24 million to £22.2 million for Paris 2024: "I think everyone's expecting a big cut."
