Lincoln City chief executive Liam Scully has revealed that Mark Kennedy’s dismissal was not solely a results based decision, during an interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
The Imps took the decision to remove the 47-year-old from his post alongside assistant Dany Butterfield yesterday, one which seemingly came out of the blue. Although recent form had been poor, Lincoln are not usually a club that make mid-season changes such as this one, leading to speculation that there was more to this than meets the eye.
The East Midlands side slumped to 16th in the League One table with a home defeat against Burton Albion on Saturday, a game which also Danny Mandroiu sent off following a reckless challenge on Brewers’ attacker Josh Gordon. It was a moment of madness which drew the wrath of Kennedy, who said after the game;
“We’re here to educate him and help him, not destroy his talent. I don’t know where he’ll be in five years, he could be in the Championship, he could be back in Ireland.
“If he changes his mentality and there’s structure to his game, he’s got incredible talent and he can go wherever he wants to go – but if he doesn’t change that, he’ll just be another statistic.
“He’s a really good professional, he’s a really good person. I’m just trying to educate him that the higher you go up, the more structured it is, the more detailed it is.
“When you look at the top managers, the top teams, they play with incredible discipline which Danny doesn’t have in his game but he’s got the capabilities to change that, so the ball’s in his court.”
It was these comments which caught the attention of the Lincoln hierarchy, who did not look favourably on the former Liverpool and Manchester City man’s public outburst. Speaking to the BBC, CEO Liam Scully said;
“Certainly, it was not purely a results-based decision (to sack Kennedy).
“Of course we are ambitious and our aim is to be higher in the table at this moment in time, but it is very early on in the season and there are lots of mitigating factors.
“One thing we want to be clear on is that we are not naive, this is about winning but this isn’t purely about results. Far from it.
“One thing I can say, and please let’s not let this run away, but I don’t think it was helpful in terms of our characterisation of Danny Mandroiu after the game.
“Is that part of it? Yes. Is that the reason? No.
“I keep going back to it, and I know I will bore people saying this, but there are many different facets and parts of this.
“This is looking at it from an elevated pitch, the progress that we are making and not necessarily the progress we have made so far, but how do we hit the measures we would like to achieve going forward?
“And fundamentally that was why we felt it was in the best interests of all parties.”
Despite his honesty, Scully does remain thankful for Kennedy’s contribution to the club after guiding the side to a comfortable 11th placed finish last season;
“Mark and Danny [assistant Danny Butterfield] in many parts did what was asked of them, and above and beyond.
“We are very grateful for them doing that, but this is about Lincoln City here and now and going forward as well.
“We will never do anything knee jerk at Lincoln City, certainly not with Clive Nates at the helm. We are process driven in terms of looking at the overall objective of the football club.”
Lincoln will be looking to get their campaign back on track this weekend when they take on fellow strugglers Fleetwood Town at Highbury. First-team coach Tom Shaw will lead the team on an interim basis until a replacement is found.
Writer’s View
This is a refreshingly honest assessment from Liam Scully and one that is rarely seen following a manger’s departure. It shows that Lincoln are a club who are serious about their business and are not content with just making up the numbers in League One.
There will perhaps be some criticism from some quarters regarding Scully’s comments on the way that Kennedy handled the Danny Mandroiu situation, but there is no doubting that he went over the top in his assessment of the player. The Imps will not rush into finding a replacement and they will be keen to find the right man to lead them into a new era.
