While the football world stands back and applauds Lincoln City this season, one rival manager has said he has no plans to follow our blueprint for success, as reported by the Doncaster Free Press.
The Imps travel to Doncaster tomorrow knowing a point will secure the League One title, with Michael Skubala freshly-crowned as the Manager of the Year. Grant McCann wasn’t on the shortlist, but he’s done a solid job with League Two champions Doncaster in their first season in the third tier.
They’re safe from the drop, and a win tomorrow could lift them as high as 11th. They were beaten by us back in November, losing 2-1 despite getting back on terms after Frankie Okoronkwo’s opener for City.
McCann has done a good job there, but when asked this weekend if he felt Lincoln City were a good model to try to emulate, he came out with a surprising response.
“Without being arrogant or cocky, no,” said the former Peterborough United boss, with what some City fans will feel is an air of arrogance. “That’s because I don’t want to be in League One for six or seven years.”
While his bold statement is probably quite refreshing and can be understood, it does feel like a misstep for a manager with plenty of credit in the bank. He was slated by his own supporters earlier in the season, not least when he signed his son in January rather than first-team players.
The board stuck by him, and now he wants to repay them by making bold claims. That’s understandable, but there was a former Lincoln City boss (the one I liked) who started mentioning the Championship in interviews long before we were ready, and it backfired on him.
McCann did have some praise for City, while also suggesting his side wanted to be a second-tier side quicker.
“Listen, what they’ve done this year is outstanding,” he added.“We want to be a lot quicker than that at getting into the Championship. And we will.”
Bold claims, and he even put a timescale on it, which is really dangerous.
“Lincoln have done unbelievably this season, but all I’m trying to say is we’d rather get there in the next two or three years – maybe even next year – rather than in seven or eight or whatever.”
Doncaster go into tomorrow’s game on the back of four wins in six, a run that has seen them pull clear of relegation danger. At one stage, they picked up a single win in 18, but two defeats in nine have seen them climb away from the bottom four.
McCann’s comments are no slur on the Imps, but it does show a lack of regard for how our success has been achieved. I guess that’s the point: McCann doesn’t want to slow burn, assemble a squad over three or four seasons and build slowly; he wants quick satisfaction.
If he gets it, fair play, he’s a good manager, and Doncaster are a good club, but it does feel like he’s setting the bar quite high for a club that only avoided the drop with four games to spare.
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