Michael Skubala Nears Bristol City Job Amid Lincoln City Concerns

Michael Skubala is closing in on the Bristol City job, and Lincoln City are bracing for impact.

According to John Percy, negotiations between Skubala and Bristol City are active but advanced, with a three-year deal understood to be close. If the final details fall into place, Lincoln will not only lose the architect of their finest modern season, they will also wave goodbye to a head coach who leaves with the second-best win percentage in the club’s history.

For a while, it didn’t feel like this.

When Bristol City first made contact a couple of weeks ago, the move barely registered as a genuine threat. There was interest, yes, but not the kind that usually ends in a manager walking away from a project he has built so carefully. Then the picture changed. Fast.

The mood shifted the moment James Ellis, a close friend of Skubala, walked into Ashton Gate as sporting director. Suddenly, this wasn’t a casual conversation. It was a live possibility. Skubala’s name moved from the longlist to the shortlist, then into serious contention.

And then, just as quickly, it seemed to fade.

Bristol City went hard for their first-choice candidate, Tommy Elphick, last week. Inside the game, the expectation was clear: Elphick would take the job, Skubala would stay put, and Lincoln would tie down their head coach to a new contract. Some outlets even reported that Skubala was close to signing fresh terms with the Imps.

Then came the twist.

Elphick, reportedly, turned the job down. He chose to remain at Dean Court under Bournemouth’s new manager, leaving Bristol City scrambling to reset their search. With their preferred option gone, the Robins turned back to the man they already knew could do the job: Skubala.

Talks resumed with real urgency. Now, a deal is understood to be in place in principle, and it would be a genuine surprise to see Skubala leading Lincoln out for their pre-season friendlies.

If that happens, the conversation at Sincil Bank flips immediately from celebration of the past season to the question that always follows success at this level: what next?

Lincoln, by all accounts, have not been caught cold. The club has worked to a clear structure in recent years, and part of that is a succession plan for every key role, including the head coach. That might be a list of external candidates. It might be a single, carefully prepared front-runner. Either way, the expectation is that the appointment process will move quickly.

Speed, though, should not be confused with panic.

The current model at Lincoln is built on collaboration rather than a single all-powerful figure. Skubala has been the front man, but the work behind him has been collective. That’s why an internal solution will appeal to many around the club.

Names are already being whispered. Tom Shaw and Chris Cohen stand out as natural candidates to step up. They know the squad, the training ground rhythms, the expectations. They understand the culture that has underpinned Lincoln’s rise. Promoting from within would keep that intact, allowing the club to replace from lower down the structure rather than tearing up the blueprint.

It’s a model that has worked elsewhere.

Brentford are the modern English example of how to run a club through change without losing direction. Dean Smith built them into a sharp, upwardly mobile side. When he left, they didn’t raid the usual managerial carousel. They promoted Thomas Frank from within. Frank took them up to the Premier League. When he moved on, they elevated set-piece coach Keith Andrews to the head coach role. The result? Another top-half Premier League finish, their third in four seasons, and a club that never felt the need to chase a “big name” just to soothe the noise.

Continuity over chaos. Process over panic.

Lincoln now stand at a similar kind of crossroads. Skubala’s work has pushed them into a new phase, one that has them talking seriously about their Championship era and what that might look like. If he goes, the temptation will be to look outward, to reach for a familiar name and a quick headline.

The smarter play may be to trust the structure they’ve spent years building.

For now, Lincoln wait for the inevitable confirmation from Bristol. But once the ink dries, the real judgement on this period won’t be about how they lost Michael Skubala.

It will be about how they choose to replace him.