City Appoint Leeds United Coach As Head Coach

The Imps have appointed the highly-rated Michael Skubala from Championship side Leeds United as head coach following a rigorous recruitment process.

You can discuss this news on the forum HERE!

Skubala has more than 20 years of elite coaching experience, with a number of roles with the Football Association culminating in being part of the England U18 team. He had previously led the England futsal strategy and acted as manager for the national teams – having overseen more than 200 games as an international head coach.

He has worked with some of the most talented young players in the country such as Rico Lewis of Manchester City while he was in the England structure, as well as Archie Gray at Leeds United U21s and Max Kilman of Wolves.

He has been part of the coaching team at Leeds United since the start of the 2022/23 season, and took charge of three games – including a 2-2 draw at Manchester United – as interim head coach.

He said: “It feels great to be here, it has been a really warm welcome and I’m looking forward to getting going.

“I’ve been here for a couple of games in the past few weeks and I’ve seen how important the fans are for the young players and how they can push the team.

“I’m really excited to work hard with the players every day, to meet the fans and be part of Lincoln City. I feel something here that I felt when I moved to Leeds, which is how important the supporters can be to the club.”

Clive Nates said: “We have been tracking Michael for some time as he is one of the most exciting young coaches in the game right now, and had a robust recruitment process to ensure he was the right person for us at this time. We had a global list of 15 coaches we thought would be a good fit, and Michael impressed as we went through the interviews. The warm wishes from Leeds United show how respected and popular he was there.

“We see this as a progressive appointment – Michael shares our ethos on player development, style of play and ambition. He has a clear vision for how he implements this and a track record of developing talented young players.

“We’re also really pleased that Tom Shaw will stay as a key part of the structure as assistant head coach. He is a highly capable coach, and both we and Michael believe he will bring strong continuity and support to the new head coach.”

The club will also look to make a further addition to the coaching team, with this appointment to be made in due course.

Thank you to Andrew Vaughan and Lincoln City FC for the photograph!

Reaction on the forum:

mikeosullivan: “Agree or disagree, he will get a fair chance from me. Look forward to the next few games!

Also pleased Tom Shaw will be an Assistant. He will only get better from his experience the past few games, and I still think he will make a very good Head Coach one day.”

Impish: “I hope anyone that is disappointed in not getting their own preferred choice as manager/coach will give Michael 100% full support and more importantly time. We have some tough games coming up and it might be a tricky start.

Welcome to SB Michael Skubala.”

Scotimp: “Well, I didn’t see that one coming! How do the directors keep these things under wraps?

Let’s get behind him because he may prove to be the greatest appointment the club has ever made.”

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