Exclusive Michael Skubala Interview

This week, Chris and I were afforded the opportunity to go to the EPC and interview the new man in charge.

The podcast is below if you wish to skip past my first impressions. We’re discussing the game against Cambridge United, but the second part of the recording is our chat with Michael Skubala. However, I wanted to give you some insight into my first meeting with our new man.

Honesty shout – I wouldn’t tell you outright if I didn’t like him. It’s counter-productive to do so, and there’s been one manager I couldn’t warm to, but instead of coming here and saying ‘I don’t like the guy’, I looked for the positive in our meeting. So, if I didn’t like Michael Skubala, I wouldn’t say. Luckily, you don’t need to try to read into what I say because I can absolutely confirm that I warmed to Michael Skubala, the person, immediately.

I gave Patreons of the site advanced access to the interview and, with it, a bit of insight into the meeting, and I think I summed up what I wanted to say really well there, so I’ve adapted that post here.

My first, and honest opinions of Michael are hugely positive. There’s a silent authority about him, a self-confidence that never feels arrogant or aloof, but it’s there in a really amiable and respectful way.

In a room, Danny Cowley was massive; he owned it the minute he walked in with an infectious personality. Michael Appleton was colder in a room, he always came across as distant, observing, yet warm and friendly when I spoke to him. Mark Kennedy felt a little aloof and detached – a week after we did the first live, I attended a sponsors event, and he didn’t say hello.

Michael Skubala comes across as unassuming at first, and I feel he could blend into a crowd in a way the others didn’t. We walked into the EPC, and he was at a table working on something, and he didn’t scream ‘big character’. However, there’s something in him that’s solid and certain: a man who knows exactly what he is doing and how he is going to do it. With Mark Kennedy, there was a change early on in style and lots of moments where he said he was learning. I felt from Michael Skubala that whilst he will always learn and adapt, he knows his path and how he will navigate it. His learning is about strengthening and tweaking, not wholesale changes of direction. He says he wants to play attacking football and have possession higher up – he won’t change that six weeks in, in my opinion.

Undoubtedly, he’s approachable, friendly, warm and open, but at no point did I sense anything other than confidence and belief, but never in an arrogant way. Here’s a man who has worked across such a broad spectrum without ever being a ‘big name’, unlike our last two coaches. I get that from him – he’s the sort of character I’d like to think I would be if I’d come up through a different route. He’s got an aura that means he might blend into a crowd by sight, but when he talks, you listen. Believe me as well – listen when he talks. Some of the stuff in our 25-minute interview is really insightful in terms of his coaching methods and approaches. Off air, he was a really nice guy – his first words after I stopped the recording were, ‘was the alright?’. He wasn’t just putting the half hour into the interview and going through the motions; we spoke and swapped stories, and he certainly seemed relaxed.

I really liked him as a person. One thing you got from our last two head coaches was that they’d played before, and that was one of the USPs, even if they didn’t trade on it. With Michael (Skubala), we’ve got a guy that UEFA are happy to send out to other countries to help build coaching quality. he might not have played under Mick McCarthy, but he is clearly widely regarded in his chosen field.

I especially liked it off-air when I said my friend used to own a nightclub in Loughborough. I can’t remember his exact words, but it was along the lines of ‘I wouldn’t know about that side of the town’. It was a relaxed comment, but it pointed to a guy who has been absolutely certain about his career path and devoted to getting where he is today and beyond.

Most of all, though, he just came across as a nice bloke who understands how to talk to people and what is needed from both a public and personal interaction. I think we’ve had two managers who have struggled with that a little, one who was belligerent in his earliest post-match interviews and another who couldn’t get across his personality. Michael Skubala isn’t like that at all – even down to the first few minutes when we asked if he knew what The Stacey West was (as in our site). “Luke has told me,” he said. “I’d like to hear a bit more.” That’s the first time I’ve met a new manager and they’ve wanted to know more about what we do first.

Anyway, on with the podcast!

You can find us at the following places: