Michael Skubala’s departure from Lincoln City is continuing to make the news, and much like the whole affair from start to finish, it is mostly still misinformation.
Our title-winning coach left Sincil Bank last week, heading to Ashton Gate as their manager, after a protracted affair that took almost three weeks. During that time, many journalists who are rarely close to Lincoln City seemed to get exclusives, of sorts.
Pete O’Rourke had Skubala going, staying, then going again, with John Percy just having him stay a few days before going. Nick Mashiter announced Skubala had signed a new deal, and that when he went, that deal ended up costing Bristol City more than a million pounds.
News of that new deal being signed was only ever broken by a journalist with no connection to the Imps, and without fact-checking the situation first. I did fact-check it (twice), and my understanding is that no deal was signed, and that the release clause was always the release clause. Indeed, between Michael being shortlisted for the final two and getting the job, there were no major developments that the club seemed aware of, such as him not going there or penning his mystery new deal.
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Sadly, the misinformation has continued, but it has now come with new facts. Firstly, Mashiter has been on BBC Bristol, doubling down on the new deal. When asked about it, he was asked if he was ‘quite clear’ that Skubala signed, and he replied.
“Yeah, look, yeah, it’s a record sale, essentially, for Lincoln City. Jovon Makama to Norwich last summer was just over a million. I’m told that to take Michael Skubala from Lincoln was around £1.4 million. And previously, he was on a deal that was on a sliding scale.
“It certainly wasn’t as much for a Championship club to take Michael Skubala previously. So Lincoln have, again, as I said, they’ve played a blinder here in terms of being able to get more money out of the situation, it’s a lot of money for a manager with just one League One promotion on his CV.”
My understanding is that this is a statement with more than one fundamental untruth in it. The release clause does sound about right: in conversations I had around the time of the approach, that figure was mentioned, but that was before news broke of any new deal even being offered. There was no sliding scale; there was a release clause offering Lincoln City protection to the tune of around £1.4m.
Also, my understanding of the Makama fee is that yes, it was over £1m, but actually, it was closer to £1.4m. In my initial report, I believed the upfront fee was actually £1.5m.
It feels like the journalist here is playing loose with figures, or his information is coming from a dodgy source. It makes City look better, by the way. It looks like we out-thought Bristol City, who were forced to go cap in hand and pay over the odds after missing their first target, but the statement here doesn’t line up with the facts as I understand them.
That makes me wary of the next statement, which will likely be the headline news tonight or tomorrow.
“The interesting thing is what Lincoln managed to do to ensure that they didn’t lose everybody. They managed to ensure that they kept their coaches, Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw. They made them joint head coaches.
“I think ultimately they outmanoeuvred Bristol City, because Bristol City wanted to take them, Michael Skubala wanted to take them to Ashton Gate, but Lincoln outmanoeuvred and outfought Bristol City, because Michael Skubala and those two coaches are very integral to each other.”
There is some truth there: the three probably are integral to each other based on the last 18 months, and I don’t know whether the Robins wanted all three or not, but it does make it harder to believe when it is coming from a man who insists a contract was signed that reportedly was not, and who pulls transfer figures from out of air, rather than confirming.
I used ‘record sale’ and ‘outmanoeuvred’ in the title, because they’re the sensational headlines that will be pulled from this report, when it feels that perhaps they’re made for grabbing attention, and not actually based on established facts.
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