Yes it was I located it.
Some of that is a bit odd. John has said over and over that he behaved impossibly, and walked out of the band saying he was leaving. It's not really an oust.
(But there seems little doubt that once he had walked out, he was helped on his way "outta town" by the management at lightning speed ... )
I wonder if that bit about "we're getting someone else in" actually happened
after John flounced, and A&R were expecting him to flounce back again at some stage, not knowing that he had been flown back to blighty ... but I'm guessing here.
"Francis didn't like the management" ... but it was
Alan who was telling the others that the C&C management was ripping them off in some way, and Francis who (until considerably later, when he quietly acknowledged that Alan had been right) supported them.
And he didn't really oust "us all one by one". John left because he left ... Rick wasn't ousted in any way shape or form - Alan was the only victim of rug-pulling. There doesn't seem to have been any "plot" to re-constitute the band after they met their existing recording obligations, it was Rick who brought John and Jeff in, and encouraged them to stay on.
As for the "brotherhood", everyone likes to think of that, but the reality was that Francis and Rick thought seriously about ditching Alan on at least two occasions well before this. John Shearlaw implies, well states actually, that there was some friction between Alan and Francis right from the start. Francis hates noise and fuss unless he's creating it, and Alan seems rather to generate it. When he was younger, anyway.
As for the money ... I imagine it would be "cheaper" to hire in a new drummer than split with Spud as a full member - I don't know how they were structured then, I'm guessing. But there's no virtue in getting rid of a productive member of the band just because you can get someone else in on a wage, if they aren't equally productive, and there is no sign that Francis had any such thing in mind. Alan wass still writing releasable songs. Also Alan and John would both have needed paying off to some degree (even before they started sueing) so it's not a cheap option.
And sorry Al I really don't think you can park any failure of quality of the 1982 album at Pete's door. (People's main target is Big Man, but I like that meself.)