Michael Skubala believes that Lincoln City are at the start of an exciting journey, and that it’s all thanks to a team effort.
As a remarkably humble man, he will always look to deflect praise from himself to the wider group, even when Michael Hortin tried to get him to talk about himself! In his interview ahead of this weekend’s fixture, he dodged a couple of questions about himself.
With the Imps already going up as Champions, it does feel like the time for backslapping and praise, but even in the aftermath of the 2-0 win against Doncaster, Michael made sure he referenced other people who have made this possible, rather than him.
“I think when you pick up the baton in any job or anything in life, you always think about how you can improve and how you can add value,” he told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
“I was trusted by Clive and the board and Jez and Liam to come here and lead the club and it’s been an absolute pleasure.
“I really love the group and I think being associated with iconic names like that is amazing, but I’m still young, I’m still learning all the time.”
That learning is something that starts again next season in the Championship, and something Michael sounds like he is eager to attack.
“Part of my bit is that I want to keep learning. I had to learn a lot about League One, I’m going to have to learn a lot about the Championship for sure.”
“You don’t do it on your own. You do it with good players, you do it with great staff. I spoke to the staff this morning about how they support and help and drive the culture. It’s important to understand that players are so important, but so are staff.
“Sometimes the backroom staff people don’t see so much, but myself and Jez are really careful about who we bring in as staff because it’s important.”
There does seem to be a real synergy at the moment between staff and players, but that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by little things changing, growing and evolving every day, and Michael gave a glimpse into one of the small things he implemented which has helped grow the current culture.
“There are loads of little touches that we’ve added over the course of the season to keep improving. I think that’s what this club has done well over the last three seasons since I’ve been here, we keep changing things to improve the culture.
“I don’t know if I told you, when I came into the building we had square tables in the canteen. I was like, no, let’s get round tables so people can face each other.
“There are a lot of things psychologically that I think I’ve added that can help the culture of the place, but there are a lot of things the staff have added as well.”
Whatever it is, it has brought perhaps the most impressive season in Lincoln City’s history. There is some fear that what we have achieved this season might never be repeated, but that’s not a worry, because our excellent head coach thinks the journey is not over. In fact, he thinks it is only just starting.
“It’s a great thing, but it’s not the end of the journey; it’s the start of a really exciting one.
“In this moment, we should celebrate the players because I actually think we’ve seen a really historical, if not one of the best Lincoln City teams that the time can remember.”
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