How a former PE teacher has turned Lincoln City into unlikely promotion hopefuls
Michael Skubala sits down with Daniel Storey to discuss his journey to Lincoln, his ambitions for the club and his managerial career to date
It is fair to say that Michael Skubala’s route into English Football League management was atypical. You know the three likely pathways by now: the British former professional footballer who does their badges and gets their chance; the foreign coach who wants a crack at English football due to its heritage and tradition; the accidental manager, perhaps who started as the interim and stuck around.
Skubala doesn’t quite fit the pattern. Fifteen years before he was appointed by Lincoln City in November, he was teaching PE and was a head of year at Lutterworth College, a senior school of over 800 pupils near to where he now lives. There was still a dream, but it was embryonic and a little blurry. Skubala spent evenings and weekends coaching young kids at Nottingham Forest, Coventry City, Barwell and Hinckley United.
If there is one seam that runs through Skubala’s career, it is a propensity to take on new challenges in a wide range of different disciplines. Over the next seven years he became, deep breath: a futsal coach at Loughborough University, an assistant coach of the university football team and of the GB Universities team, a founder of his own futsal development programme, director of football at Loughborough, a Football Association coach education tutor, and head coach of the England futsal team. Plenty of these roles ran simultaneously.
