Ipswich looking for a new manager

[valefan16]

To be fair to Dave if Ipswich want him he will be gone. Money talks, he would be stupid not to further his career.

 

[Dave-Vale]

Lengthy spell in non-league? That'd be 7 in 130 odd years...

He's managed for 11 years, won 6 promotions, 6 cups (also lost 6 semi finals of cups and PO's), broken records at every club he's been at and has a win ratio of 55-60% over nearly 500 games...that's a hell of a couple of years.

Going down in 2011 then not coming back up until 2017 is a fairly long time in football. It’s longer than Vale have ever spent there anyway. You’ve not played higher than the 3rd tier for 50 odd years.

You’re a club on the up, but we were the same a few years back but it came tumbling down and that’s more often than not the case with most clubs. There are plenty of fans you can ask in League One/League Two.

It’s a decent record but if you lot think he won’t go to Ipswich if they came calling then you’re seriously deluded.

 

[Davidimp]

Everybody seems to know our club better than us, fair does.

 

[Luke Imp]

Most are expecting him to leave in the near-ish future.

I personally think he can do better than Ipswich. He thrives on taking on underperforming Clubs and I'm not sure Ipswich fall under that category. As GodsGift says in an earlier post, they do tick other boxes though (and he has family who are Ipswich supporters).

All this said, gut feeling is that Ipswich will go for a seasoned head. L2 to the Championship is a massive jump, which is why he rejected Barnsley (who admittedly weren't particularly well placed at the time anyway).

 

[Davidimp]

But by all accounts we play a very unpopular style of football, would a championship club want to play our style of anti football?

 

[JJ1532]

But by all accounts we play a very unpopular style of football, would a championship club want to play our style of anti football?

Given Neil Warnock's success at Cardiff, I'd say any manager that can bring winning football would be greatly received.

 

[shoddycollins]

Lengthy spell in non-league? That'd be 7 in 130 odd years...

He's managed for 11 years, won 6 promotions, 6 cups (also lost 6 semi finals of cups and PO's), broken records at every club he's been at and has a win ratio of 55-60% over nearly 500 games...that's a hell of a couple of years.

I think that's his point. Sounds exactly like the kind of career trajectory where Lincoln is just a stopover.

 

[Posh Harry]

But by all accounts we play a very unpopular style of football, would a championship club want to play our style of anti football?

Ipswich have had several years of McCarthy. They would think Pep had taken over if the Cowleys were in charge.

 

[Impish]

I don't think he'll go if Ipswich come calling, 2/3 years time then yes when he's taken us as far as he can.

Dave-Vale keeps bringing up the past (clinging onto it bless him). Vale are a basment league side fighting off relegation to non-league. More than likely will be for the next decade.

We're miles apart in the way our clubs are run..hence a manager may want to stay with our club. You make Ipswich sound like they're playing European football next season. There's a possibility we could be one place behind them in the pyramid a game into next season..unlikely but still.

Positivity Dave-Vale positivity. Try a slice, it might rub off on your players

 

[Davidimp]

Speaking with them today about signing a precontract agreement.

 

[BelizeHatter]

I think you're being overly arrogant if you think a club like Ipswich won't tempt him. It will and would be very difficult to turn down for any manager at this level - including ours - and I'm sure we should have more holding power.

 

[shoddycollins]

I don't think he'll go if Ipswich come calling, 2/3 years time then yes when he's taken us as far as he can.

Cowley is a manager on the up, but things can change and that's why you'll always see managers and players taking the chance to make the step up as soon as it comes. If he stays with Lincoln, you don't go up and next season have a middling one with an eye more on the relegation spots than the playoffs then his chance could have gone for good.

 

[Dave-Vale]

I don't think he'll go if Ipswich come calling, 2/3 years time then yes when he's taken us as far as he can.

Dave-Vale keeps bringing up the past (clinging onto it bless him). Vale are a basment league side fighting off relegation to non-league. More than likely will be for the next decade.

We're miles apart in the way our clubs are run..hence a manager may want to stay with our club. You make Ipswich sound like they're playing European football next season. There's a possibility we could be one place behind them in the pyramid a game into next season..unlikely but still.

Positivity Dave-Vale positivity. Try a slice, it might rub off on your players

Ipswich Town are a significantly bigger club than Lincoln City.

I genuinely don’t care whether he goes or stays, or whether Ipswich even want him, I just came here as it was a Lincoln based thread and I’d noticed that your fans are a bit weird/obsessed with your average manager. It reminds me of the Rotherham fans that year we went up with them.

As I said, I’m not sure why Ipswich would want him because so far he’s done nothing of major note in league football other than potentially lead you to a play off place in League 2. If you were top of the league, 12 points clear, scored 80 goals, playing ace football then I could understand why a decent sized Championship club would come in for your manager, but you’re not.

We might have an absolute clown running us/possibly asset stripping us but Blackpool had the same thing and still got promoted.

As far as I’m aware this season we had a decent sized budget which was wasted by Micheal Brown, a man who is not and never will be a football manager. Once we’ve cleared out some dead wood, signed a couple of better players I can’t see why we can’t have a good go at getting out of this league next season; maybe you’ll be challenging too, if you don’t go up this year. But hey, this thread is about Lincoln losing their manager, not Port Vale’s off field and on field problems.

 

[valefan16]

You know we’ve fallen far when Lincoln City are getting all billy big bollocks about how far ahead they are.

We won’t be struggling for ten years though.

If Ipswich want any league two manager they almost certainly would get them including Lincoln’s boss.

Let’s put it in every day terms... your managing a small local business earning 75,000 a year... then a firm about five or six times the size comes in and offers you 350,000 a year what would you do? It’s all cute to think of loyalty and what ifs but it would be a ticket to one of the biggest leagues in Europe and allow him to provide well for his family for years to come.

The idea that Lincoln on the off chance they do go up will get to the Championship is relatively ludicrous. You’ve done a great job is riding the wave of success and getting fans in and the community side of things but if you go up having 7000 fans and a few hundred k in the bank means nothing as your not playing the likes or Morecambe and Yeovil week in week out.

Last year Bolton and Sheffield United has massive budgets... David Wheater was on as much as week as some league one sides first elevens. Wigan the year before has a so so first half of the season so spent over £1 million in January to ensure they get the job done. You get the odd fluke like Burton but the reality is it’s rare. It’s so rare that a gamble on that rather than a side that’s mid table and competitive at Championship level would be stupid to turn down.

 

[Maple Hatter]

I think you're being overly arrogant if you think a club like Ipswich won't tempt him. It will and would be very difficult to turn down for any manager at this level - including ours - and I'm sure we should have more holding power.

At the end of the NJ post match interview a journalist, who normally covers Ipswich games and made a point of stating that, asked him a couple of questions. The first about Downes and the second about the rumours linking him with the Ipswich job. Any vacancy at the moment in a higher league will always list managers who are doing well at lower league clubs. Nothing new about that. But out of curiousity I had a quick glance at the latest betting odds for their new manager. NJ isn't even listed in the 25 possible replacements. This part time Ipswich journalist who was sent to cover the Colchester game (reluctantly it seems) has obvioulsy been searching the various football forums to get his information. My guess is one of the many trolls on Outlaws that fed him.

 

[shoddycollins]

To put it in context. When we came up from the Conference, we went on to win the League Two title, that summer, our manager Paul Simpson left as soon as Preston came and showed an interest. We were more successful in our first season back in the league than Lincoln, and Simpson was a local lad in his first managerial position having previously been a player, then a player-manager and Preston are not as big a club as Ipswich, so we had more reason then to think Simpson's loyalty and desire to finish what he'd started might come before his career than Lincoln do now but the fact is you just don't turn down those opportunities. I'm sure he'd have loved the idea of taking his hometown club from the Conference to the Championship in three years but the risk of turning an opportunity down was too great.

Simpson's doing alright for himself now. Just led the England U-20 side to World Cup success.

 

[Imp in Branston]

DC has done nothing of note at Lincoln at all, Dave Vale says he has little league experience and is an average manager. I hope we can keep hold of him, I wouldn't want a club like Ipswich or any club on the lookout for someone to take a club forward to have to resort to employing that abject failure.

 

[valefan16]

DC has done nothing of note at Lincoln at all, Dave Vale says he has little league experience and is an average manager. I hope we can keep hold of him, I wouldn't want a club like Ipswich or any club on the lookout for someone to take a club forward to have to resort to employing that abject failure.

Dave pointed out a few facts that currently he has achieved nothing in the EFL. A Lincoln side just on fringe of play offs with the FA Cup cash and the wave of last season isn’t achieving anything as yet. Not to say he won’t though going forward but at the moment he is unproven in the EFL.

 

[Imp in Branston]

Dave pointed out a few facts that currently he has achieved nothing in the EFL. A Lincoln side just on fringe of play offs with the FA Cup cash and the wave of last season isn’t achieving anything as yet. Not to say he won’t though going forward but at the moment he is unproven in the EFL.

Blah de blah. It is April Fools day, like every other day supporting Port Vale obviously!

DC will leave Lincoln whether it's the end of this season or a season or two later. Lincoln fans all know and expect this. They (because it's Danny and Nicky Cowley) owe us nothing as a club and will always be remembered as probably being the most successful management teams in our history. I do believe they will go on to manage at a much higher level, it's just as and when, might be Ipswich, might not.

The test will be when they go and who we bring in to replace them. Am hoping with Clive Nates and other knowledgeable people on this board And a much more sustainable club with financial security we can keep the wolf from the door for a while and keep this positivity going.

If we don't get into the play offs this season, so be it, I expect we will have a decent chance to be in and around a play off spot next season. We will have to overcome the mighty Vale for one of those spots though obviously.

 

[valefan16]

Blah de blah. It is April Fools day, like every other day supporting Port Vale obviously!

DC will leave Lincoln whether it's the end of this season or a season or two later. Lincoln fans all know and expect this. They (because it's Danny and Nicky Cowley) owe us nothing as a club and will always be remembered as probably being the most successful management teams in our history. I do believe they will go on to manage at a much higher level, it's just as and when, might be Ipswich, might not.

The test will be when they go and who we bring in to replace them. Am hoping with Clive Nates and other knowledgeable people on this board And a much more sustainable club with financial security we can keep the wolf from the door for a while and keep this positivity going.

If we don't get into the play offs this season, so be it, I expect we will have a decent chance to be in and around a play off spot next season. We will have to overcome the mighty Vale for one of those spots though obviously.

What’s Vale go to do with it? Yeah it’s been a good laugh to be fair those years in the 2nd and 3rd tier most of my life.

We’ve experienced the worst season in our history but dare say inquests will happen in the summer and Aspo will build his own competitive squad assuming we don’t colossally screw up now.

Not sure why that’s got anything to do with a debate about Lincoln’s manager in which fair points have been made? (Aside from
Daves Maybe harsh post about Lincoln fans being weird) all fans over egg it when on the wave that we experience now and again. As I said you’ve been a model club in terms of taking advantage of last season and most Vale fans were very complimentary of the family aspect you’ve put into it with the fan zone etc.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Still think they're a pair of glorified PE teachers succeeding by doing the obvious when the opposition is either poor or trying to be too clever. Nothing wrong with that but it has an upper limit of effectiveness and they're around about there already.

 

[Dave-Vale]

There’s no need to be so defensive because I called your fans a bit weird and obsessed with him. Some of the digs at my own club here are proper primary school stuff.

I pointed out a fact and that is that he’s not (as of yet) done anything in League football so I don’t see why a decent sized club that should be pushing for promotion to the Prem would want him at the moment.

I also pointed out that if Ipswich want him enough then they will get him and it’s more than likely he would go.

 

[dedwardp]

At the end of the NJ post match interview a journalist, who normally covers Ipswich games and made a point of stating that, asked him a couple of questions. The first about Downes and the second about the rumours linking him with the Ipswich job. Any vacancy at the moment in a higher league will always list managers who are doing well at lower league clubs. Nothing new about that. But out of curiousity I had a quick glance at the latest betting odds for their new manager. NJ isn't even listed in the 25 possible replacements. This part time Ipswich journalist who was sent to cover the Colchester game (reluctantly it seems) has obvioulsy been searching the various football forums to get his information. My guess is one of the many trolls on Outlaws that fed him.

He asked John McGreal the same questions, so may have just been asking both whilst he was there. McGreal is a former Ipswich player, clearly local and would presumably be a nice cheap option that Marcus Evans may like. He hasn't done the worst job with us given what he gets to work with and was reasonably low odds to start with, albeit it isn't something I can see as particularly realistic.

 

[Luke Imp]

Cowley is a manager on the up, but things can change and that's why you'll always see managers and players taking the chance to make the step up as soon as it comes. If he stays with Lincoln, you don't go up and next season have a middling one with an eye more on the relegation spots than the playoffs then his chance could have gone for good.

That's not strictly true, is it? I know the point you're trying to make because Raggett did so earlier in the season and most probably would but there are your fair share of players and managers who don't. Woodyard rejected what could be seen as a step up to Luton in January. Cowley rejected Barnsley earlier in the season, he rejected Notts County last season when we were NL and by no means 100% getting promoted either.

Just to re-iterate other comments, though. The Cowleys will leave sooner rather than later. It's completely expected and it was obvious that they wouldn't be around for long after about 6 months here, which is why less than a year into their initial 2 year deal, we gave them a new 5 year one, which expires in 2021. Their managerial record, regardless of the levels of their success, are too good to go unnoticed. We were just good enough to spot and take them earlier than everyone else (well, perhaps other than Braintree).

In fact, I'd suggest most probably expect them to leave after their second year, which is this summer.

 

[dedwardp]

Still a bit annoyed that our insistence to appoint from within meant that we showed no interest in the Cowleys when they were 15 minutes down the road with Braintree. There were enough discussions about them but if they're not already involved in our setup then we're not bothered.

 

[Davidimp]

A lot of clubs in the South East have a look at the two of them but on none of them have taken a punt on them , so far at least.
Best story I saw was on the fishy that Grimsby had made a seven day approach for Nicky to become their new manager, done deal by all accounts according to the person on there.

 

[MaineRoad_96]

Fair point Dale-Vale. I think it was after your 5th long post on this issue that I realised you weren’t bothered at all.

 

[GTFCfish]

I see on this thread certain Lincoln fans getting very precious again just for a change........

 

[Moomin]

I can see some comparisons here with Tisdale’s situation some years back. We were on the up, like Lincoln, and Tisdale’s stock was very high. Swansea game calling and apparently he was extremely close to leaving, but had a last minute change of heart to stay with us. I think he felt he could take us into the Championship after finishing 8th in L1 but we soon fell away, got relegated and since then he’s never really been in line for a much bigger job. Ok so he had an interview at Pompey but that was when they were a L2 club so not quite the same as jumping a couple of leagues.

So, for Cowley, if he were approached and did a ‘Tisdale’ would he get another opportunity like this in the future? I can imagine most if not all Imps fans think he will always be the mut’s nuts and always be in demand, but I used to think similarly about Tisdale, whereas I’ve been wanting him to leave for the past few years as things went stale a long time ago (despite our recent improvement).

There’s little loyalty in football, so if he did stay to finish his job at Lincoln, I take my hat off to him, but I will be interested to see how far he can take them.

 

[Chris FGR]

I see on this thread certain Lincoln fans getting very precious again just for a change........

You know what Luke's like.

At least no ones mentioned Akinola.....