The truth about Lincoln City and the structure between Michael Skubala, Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw is a hot topic of conversation right now.
There has been a lot of noise since Skubala left Lincoln City for Bristol City, and in many ways, it has felt like the post-breakup stage of a football relationship. Michael has given his first Bristol City interview, and naturally, talked up his achievements (and rightly so). When he was here, we often heard “we”, and now Jez George has spoken about how much work Tom and Chris have done behind the scenes, almost presenting them as the driving force, while Michael was the man in front of the camera.
That has led to two different viewpoints forming. Some will take the club’s message and believe that Tom and Chris were the real engine room, with Michael almost sitting there with a rubber stamp. Others will be convinced that Michael was the be-all and end-all, and that all the “we” language while he was here was just him being polite.
As ever, the truth is probably not as simple as either side would like it to be.
The Lincoln City view
Jez George, sporting director at Sincil Bank, has given his second interview of the summer this week to Michael Hortin, and in it, he explained some of the structure the club worked under last season. It’s a comprehensive listen, and if you haven’t already, head over to Red Imps Club to give it a go.
He explained the recruitment process which saw Chris and Tom become head coaches at the club.
“We met with Tom and Chris individually and then collectively, and it was the overwhelming and unanimous view that this was the best way to go,” said Jez.
“It’s only really when we got to the end of this season, and we saw how the coaching staff and their work evolved over the last 12 months under Michael’s watch, that it became the clearly logical way of doing it.
“I know that’s difficult for people to understand because we live in a world of convention. Who picks the team? Who is number one? Who makes the final choice? I get all that, but there are real reasons why we think them doing it together beats one doing it and the other assisting them.
“The most important thing is that they believe that as well. It wasn’t like we were trying to convince them. Watching them work together, watching how we evolved and how we structured the coaching department over the last 12 months, it just made absolute logic.”
Now that might be all well and good, but people will want to understand exactly what their role was last season, to offer some balance as to how much Michael’s input will be missed.
“Last summer, Chris and Tom, to a large degree, went away and designed what looked like our game model for last year,” added Jez. “There was a platform created the year before, maybe the last 10 games of that season, which was something like what we wanted to play: 4-2-3-1, vertical, aggressive, front foot, counter-pressing, all those qualities you saw last year.
“Chris and Tom went into the detail: how we build, how we press, the structures and the patterns, and probably delivered 90 to 95% of those training sessions.
“Chris looked after one part of the team, Tom looked after the other, and it was a partnership. They would dovetail in terms of being on the training pitch, how it was put together and how they worked.”
So, what did Michael do? If our new pairing did all the planning, then what was it our departed Head Coach did at the club?
“Michael would always have final say,” said Jez. “Michael would have the check and challenge. He would ask them to explain things, say he wasn’t sure about something, or that he had watched something and wasn’t sure.
“Ultimately, if Chris and Tom’s team and game plan was not quite what Michael wanted, Michael would have that final say. But Chris and Tom had worked for two years to walk into that office with what they thought it should be.”
That wasn’t the end of things either, as Jez confirmed how the day-to-day training has been delivered.
“Every single training session was delivered by Chris and Tom. Every unit meeting was delivered by Chris and Tom. We have a bank of evidence that says these two guys can work together and see the game in the same way.
“Do they agree and disagree? Of course they do. Is there a massive amount of debate between the two of them before they walk through the door into Michael’s office and say this is the team they think it should be? Of course there is.
“I don’t recognise a world where you can’t have your own opinion, have debate, question and almost argue for the right point, and then agree on what the right thing to do is.”
Jez highlighted a couple of other salient points around how things might operate, so well worth a listen.
A Collaborative Trio
The feeling is that Michael, Chris and Tom operated very much as a collaborative trio, and while the headline social media takeaway seems to be ‘they did everything’ that’s not really what Jez is saying. Michael was the head coach in name, with Chris and Tom as assistant head coaches, but it always felt like there was (at least) a three-way discussion taking place, with each of them bringing something different.
That is not always the case with coaching teams. You can look back at different eras and see much clearer hierarchies. Under Mark Kennedy, for example, it often felt like Danny Butterfield was just carrying out the manager’s instructions, although my understanding is that Tom Shaw was heavily involved in delivering sessions. David Kerslake did something under Michael Appleton, while Keith Alexander and Gary Simpson had their own dynamic, but one person set the tone.
I’m not sure Michael did that, he steered it, which is different. It never felt like he was simply telling Tom and Chris what to do. It felt more collaborative than that, which Jez confirms, and I do not see that as a sign of weakness in a head coach. I see it as a reflection of modern football.
The days when one manager did everything, set the training, controlled the tactics, handled recruitment and made every single call, are long gone. Football clubs are now complex operations. Recruitment is not just about signing players to play on a Saturday. It is about development, structure, value, culture and long-term planning.
In that sense, I think Jez George and Liam Scully are as important to Lincoln City as the head coach at the sharp end. The head coach is vital, of course he is, but a modern football club is a tightly run business, and the success of the last few years has been about much more than one person.
What Michael Changed
I do think a lot that Lincoln City became more structured after Michael arrived. He brought different ideas into the football club. He came from a different background, not as someone who had simply played the game for years and then moved into coaching with fixed ideas about what a professional training ground should look like. He had been around Leeds United, he had been around Marcelo Bielsa, and he brought elements of that wider football education with him.
There were little things he mentioned in interviews that stuck with me. Taking out square tables and putting round ones in, for instance, because it forces people to talk to each other. That sounds small, and of course, he did much more than turn tables around, but it tells you something about how he thinks.
At the same time, some of the things at the club now traded on an existing structure and ethos. The way we treat players, the handling of contracts, the care around individuals, the way the club looks after people, that comes from higher up and has been part of the club’s identity for a while.
So it would be wrong to say Michael built everything. It would be equally wrong to say he was just a figurehead.
When Danny and Nicky left, it felt like a full reset. I remember meeting Michael Appleton for the first time, and he was brilliant with me, a gent, but he also tore apart a lot of what had been in place before. Under Danny and Nicky, there had been a traffic-light system for injuries: red meant unavailable, amber meant maybe, green meant fit. Appleton’s view was simpler. You could either play or you could not.
He also looked at the squad and, from memory, claimed it was like Dad’s Army, wanting to clear out players like Lee Frecklington and Michael o’Connor. It was a significant change in direction and that was not necessarily wrong, because maybe we did need a reset at that point. We had come from the National League, through League Two and into League One, and the squad needed to evolve.
This time, we do not need that. That is the key difference.
When Danny and Nicky left, there was a sense from some players that we just needed to keep doing what we were doing, but the reality was that League One required something different. The board knew it. Danny and Nicky probably knew it and that was why they left.
This time, after 103 points, 29 unbeaten and promotion to the Championship, continuity feels much more important. That is why moving to Chris and Tom makes sense. It keeps a lot of what worked in place.
What Changes Now?
The club will understandably want to sell the message that Michael’s leaving changes nothing. To a degree, there is truth in that. But it would be naive to say nothing changes at all.
Michael had roles. He did not sit in his office all day reading my articles and waiting for Michael Hortin to call for an interview. He had to pull things together; he had to front the operation. He had to be involved in tactics, player liaison, the press, recruitment discussions and the overall running of the football side.
One thing I was told before he left was that he was viewed almost as a technical director within the club, someone overseeing a lot of different strands. In a modern football club, you cannot physically be involved in every recruitment conversation, every tactical detail, every meeting, every training plan and every individual development discussion, but someone has to bring it all together.
That was Michael. To play down his role too much would be unfair. Equally, to suggest Chris and Tom were just standing behind him waiting for instructions would be unfair as well.
Whenever I have been at the training ground or watched sessions around interviews, it has not looked like everything was led by one person. The group breaks into different drills and units. Different coaches take different elements. Chris and Tom have been very hands-on, and that matters.
That is also why the loss is not total. When somebody passes through a football club, they leave a mark. Michael has gone, but not everything he brought goes with him. The round tables stay. Some of his drills stay. Some of the culture stays. Some of the structure stays. Maybe you lose 50% of what he brought, but the rest remains embedded. That is not a full reset.
Date: April 18, 2026
The Future
Tom Shaw is Mr Lincoln City. He arrived at the end of 2018 and has been with us for years now. He understands the club, he understands the place, and he is personable. Chris Cohen is perhaps less known to supporters as he hasn’t done interviews, but anyone who sits near the media area will have seen him watching the first half from up high, coming down and feeding information back. He has been part of the tactical process, part of the work with analysts and part of the matchday operation.
David Preece is surely set to have a bigger role too. He is more than a goalkeeping coach, and there is wisdom and experience there. In fact, if you recall (which you may not), he was a man I had huge respect for ten years ago when I started this site. I thought he was a possible manager himself, articulate and pensive, and it delighted me when he came back. Jez confirms in the BBC interview he’s set for deeper involvement.
“Everybody will think about what happens if Chris and Tom disagree and who gets the final say, but there is also a question of confirmation bias. What you actually need is fresh eyes and a different voice as well.
“David Preece provides that. We’re so fortunate with David. He’s not just a goalkeeper coach for us. I know he also looks after the set-pieces, but he is also just a wise man.
“He has incredible experience in football at all different levels, a proper presence in the building and huge respect from Chris, Tom, myself, all the staff and all the players. He provides that different voice as well.”
The Middle Ground
The interesting thing is that both sides of the breakup will frame their half as the dominant half. The optics of doing the opposite are too dangerous.
Michael has gone to Bristol City, so of course, he is going to talk about what he did here. What else is he supposed to say in his first interview? Is he supposed to say he had good staff behind him, who are still at Lincoln, and they did a lot of the work? Of course not. Bristol City supporters would then ask whether they have got the front man but not the brains.
At the same time, Lincoln City are naturally going to highlight the work Chris and Tom did. They are going to point to the things they were responsible for and say: these were strengths last season, and these are the people who delivered them. That happened when Mark Kennedy left as well. There was a push for continuity then, with attention placed on the defensive work and the coaching that remained in the building. The structure did not disappear overnight, and that helped provide a platform.
The truth is that Lincoln City had three very good individuals at the football club, all of whom played a pivotal role, alongside others, in a remarkable League One title win.
Michael was the head coach. He pulled things together. He fronted it. He took information from analysts, coaches and recruitment staff, and he had to make decisions. Now he has gone to Bristol City, where he will have to build his own structure.
The Imps have kept Chris and Tom, who were not passengers. They were pivotal parts of what happened. We move on now, and in our duo, there is a continuity that matters. There is a culture there that matters. There is a way of working that does not disappear because one man has moved on.
If we finish outside the bottom three next season, that would have been success under Michael Skubala. If we finish outside the bottom three under Chris and Tom, that will be success as well. The wider football world will expect us to be relegated either way, so in that sense, nothing has really changed.
The challenge remains enormous. The step up is huge. But the club has not been stripped bare. It has not lost everything. Michael leaves behind part of himself in the structure, the standards and the work already done. Those who are picking up the reigns do so already knowing 90% of their role.
The king is gone, long live the kings.
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