Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw Taking Over at Lincoln City: Analysis and Reaction

Michael Skubala has left Lincoln City for Bristol City, but the speed of the succession plan tells us plenty about the club he leaves behind.

There is disappointment, of course there is, because you do not lose a head coach after the sort of season we have just had and shrug your shoulders as if nothing has happened. Skubala has gone after delivering one of the greatest campaigns in the club’s history, a title-winning season built on clarity, calmness, detail and a remarkable sense of togetherness. He leaves with the Imps preparing for the Championship, which is both the reward for what he helped build and the reason this all stings a little more than it might have done at another time.

Still, football rarely waits for sentiment to catch up. At five o’clock, the news was Skubala leaving. Half an hour later, the news was Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw taking over as joint head coaches. That tells us something: it tells us this was not a club scrambling around, ringing agents, firing up WhatsApp groups and wondering who might fancy the job. It tells us there was a plan, and whether supporters agree with that plan or not, it was clearly one the club had thought through long before the press release landed.

Skubala Leaves With Thanks, Not Bitterness

Let’s start with Skubala. He arrived as a first-time head coach and leaves having changed the narrative around Lincoln City. Whatever happens next, that cannot be taken away from him. The club were brave in appointing him, and he rewarded that bravery by proving that football does not have to be run by volume, ego or old-school dictatorship. Jez George’s line about Skubala dispelling the myth that professional football requires dictatorial leadership feels important, because it gets to the heart of what has happened here.

We have not won because one man stood at the front and shouted louder than everyone else. We have won because the club created an environment where good people were allowed to do their jobs. That is not a small thing. In fact, it might be the most important thing he leaves behind.

There will be supporters who look at Bristol City and wonder if it is the right move. I understand that. Bristol are bigger than us in almost every measurable way, even if we will share a division with them next season. They are established at Championship level, they have a big ground, good infrastructure, and ambitions beyond simply surviving in the second tier. They are also the sort of club that could give him a platform, provided they show the same patience and alignment he had here.

That is the gamble for him. City gave him time when there were bumps. Bristol might do the same, but the Championship is not known for its deep breathing and long-term thinking. That is his decision, and I do not think it is one he will have taken lightly. His open letter suggests as much, and whatever frustration there might be about the timing, I do not think this is a case for anger.

The loyalty argument will come, because it always does. Someone will say there is no loyalty in football, someone else will say money talks, and before long the man who has just given us 103 points and a 29-game unbeaten run will be painted as if he has done something unforgivable. That is nonsense. Managers get moved on quickly when results go badly, supporters call for change when things stall, and clubs are ruthless when they need to be. If a head coach then takes a major step up at the point his stock is highest, that is not betrayal. That is football.

We can be disappointed without being bitter. We can wish he had stayed without pretending Bristol City are some sideways move. We can thank him properly while still turning the page quickly, because the club have already done exactly that.

Cohen And Shaw Mean Continuity, Not Panic

The appointment of Cohen and Shaw is the really interesting part of the day. Not because it is flashy, not because it gives everyone a week of speculation, and not because it allows us to write lists of available managers who once had a good six months somewhere in 2018. It is interesting because it is almost aggressively sensible.

This is continuity defined. The club have not ripped up the plan. They have not decided that promotion to the Championship means everything that worked in League One suddenly needs replacing. They have looked at the structure, the coaching environment, the recruitment process and the culture, and they have decided that the best way forward is to remove one part of the operation and keep as much of the rest in place as possible.

That matters. When Danny and Nicky Cowley left in 2019, it felt different because so much of the club had been built in their image. They were the figureheads, the driving force, the energy source and the identity. This does not feel quite like that. Skubala was hugely important, clearly, but Lincoln have spent years trying to become a club where one person leaving does not bring the whole thing down. If that is the model, this is the test.

Cohen and Shaw are not just two blokes who happened to be in the building when the music stopped. Cohen has worked at Premier League and Championship level, had a strong playing career, and came into Lincoln with real pedigree. Shaw has been part of the fabric of the club for years, starting in the academy, stepping up at different points, taking interim charge when needed, and becoming increasingly central to the first-team environment. Together, they were already part of the decision-making process, already part of the training-ground work, already part of the match preparation, and already part of the recruitment discussions.

Of course, there are risks. There always are. If the results are poor, people will say it was the cheap option or the easy option. If the first few weeks are difficult, there will be those who insist the club should have gone for a bigger name. That is inevitable. If the team looks disjointed, there will be accusations that one man wants more sway than the other. The Championship is unforgiving, and no internal appointment comes with a guarantee attached. If things did not work, the danger would be that City then lose not just Skubala, but the remaining two figureheads of the coaching structure as well. That is the obvious concern.

However, you do not avoid every risk by appointing externally. You simply swap one set of risks for another. Bring in someone from outside and you risk a new style, a new staff, a new voice, a new set of demands and a new period of adjustment at precisely the point when the club need clarity. Promote from within and you keep the culture, the language, the habits and the trust. Given where we are, and given how quickly this has all happened, it is not difficult to see why the club have chosen the latter.

There will be a temptation to frame this as City trying to be clever or different, but I am not sure that is right. I think it is simpler than that. This is a football club making a decision based on what it believes gives it the best chance of carrying last season’s work into next season. Not sentiment, not novelty, not a gimmick. Just continuity.

Skubala goes with thanks. He has earned his move, and he leaves us in a better place than he found us. That is probably the measure of any good head coach. Cohen and Shaw now inherit something strong, something aligned and something they helped build in the first place. That does not guarantee success, but it does mean this is not a restart.

It is the next part of the same story.