Lincoln City should have a new head coach in charge after the Port Vale match on Saturday, according to chief executive Liam Scully, but his identity is still no nearer to being known… or whether the club have actually decided on an appointment yet.
You can discuss what Liam Scully has said in this interview HERE!
During a 10-minute interview with Radio Lincolnshire, only one name was uttered from Scully’s lips, Drogheda’s Kevin Doherty, with the Imps CEO cheekily referring to him when asked about his trip to Ireland.
Scully and director of football Jez George travelled to the Emerald Isle last week to take in Drogs’ match with Shelbourne, where it was reported that they were there to watch Jack Moylan’s last game for the club before his move to the Imps.
Tongues obviously wagged, with Shelbourne boss Damien Duff’s name coming to the fore and racing to the summit of the prospective candidates’ list. And while the reticent Scully – who spent much of the interview delivering marketing jargon with regular aplomb – didn’t totally dismiss the rumours, he vaguely suggested the bookies, and fans, were barking up the wrong tree.
“I came back from Ireland and the team told me ‘it’s gone wild and there are all sorts of rumours’,” he said. “The reality of things are often so very different. It was great to get over to see Jack [Moylan] in his final game for Shelbourne.
“The Ireland trip was about Jack Moylan… and I’ll mention this glibly before the betting odds go crazy, but when people talk about League Of Ireland managers, I can’t believe people are not mentioning Kevin Doherty.
“The job he and the team have done at Drogheda with the resources they have is phenomenal. They obviously played a huge part in Freddie Draper and Elicha Ahui’s careers… but there could be a few red herrings there.
“Quite rightfully, people want to know what’s going on and it’s our job to run a professional process and run it discreetly with all the people involved in that.”
What little Scully did admit to was the news that the club are well underway with the search for a new head coach – and it will be a head coach, as opposed to manager – and that they are not far off from finding the right man. He went on: “We’re at a significant way down the track – we said at the very beginning that we were going to run a thorough process, and we won’t be distracted from that.
‘We are pleased with how it’s gone and we are entering the latter stages of the process.
“Long gone are the days when there is a single point of success and failure. Lincoln City will be appointing a head coach. We are asking them to specialise in preparing a team, developing a team and ensuring they have the best possible chances of winning on a Saturday at 3pm. That’s what we are asking the chosen person to focus on.”
Scully revealed that Shaw will definitely be in charge for the next two games, although his admission that “we will review it from there’” seemed rather at odds with his previous assertions that they were “in the latter stages of the process”.“We expect Tom to be in charge for the Port Vale game and review it from there,” he said. “There are a number of factors in the football calendar, in and around the international break, and what that looks like, so we won’t be held hostage. After the Port Vale game would be a natural point when you’d expect to see progress.”
Although no names were mentioned of potential candidates, Scully did mention that he and the board had been surprised at the standing of some of the people enquiring about the vacancy.
“We don’t need to sell our club, but what is most pleasing is seeing the calibre of people that have an interest in working at Lincoln City that maybe we wouldn’t have seen the likes of before, so from the database and research we do, that tells us we’re in a reasonable place,” he said.
“This is a long-term plan, so we don’t want to make any knee-jerk decisions or short-term plans, just for the sake of a moment in time. We are not tone deaf, we aware of what the fans are thinking. But nothing has changed, despite some poor recent results.”
Writer: The Imposter
You can listen to the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gr2nbf
Liam Scully: "We are pleased with how it's gone and we are entering the latter stages of the process."https://t.co/MD0qC3WvZJ#WeAreImps
— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) November 6, 2023
