Lincoln City can seal promotion but one Michael Skubala concern will remain | OneFootball

The Imps are flying high but that may not solve all their worries

Lincoln City are perhaps something of a surprise package in League One this season.

The Imps haven’t finished in the play-off places since the 2020/21 season, then under the management of former boss Michael Appleton.

And their 11th-placed berth last term is unlikely to have provoked many to back them for automatic promotion glory before a ball was kicked in this campaign – but that’s exactly the contention they find themselves in as things stand.

A relatively restrained transfer window kept them under the radar, but the work current manager Michael Skubala is doing is now impossible to keep under wraps with a quick glance at the league table – something that may bring one big negative amid its many positives.

Michael Skubala has worked wonders for Lincoln City this season

Joining midway through the 2023/24 season, his first full campaign last term was probably not what Skubala had dreamt of when he first arrived.

Given they had finished just two points off the play-offs in 2023/24, being cut 16 points adrift from the same spot a season later felt like decline, but the power-brokers at the LNER Stadium are now being rewarded for their perseverance.

The Imps are now one of the favourites for automatic promotion under Skubala, just four points off bounce-back hopefuls Cardiff City, having lost just five games all season.

Their current run encompasses an eight-game unbeaten run in League One, with wins over promotion contenders Cardiff and Stockport County being particular highlights.

Even baking in last season’s disappointment, Skubala retains a points-per-game ratio of 1.6, the best such record of any Lincoln boss this side of the Millennium, aside for Danny Cowley.

That is seriously strong and consistent form, something that will surely be picked up on by teams higher in the pyramid.

The Lincoln City manager could face interest in coming weeks

While such strong performance is clearly benefiting Lincoln right now, it could become a problem as clubs in higher leagues shuffle their management decks.

At this middling point of the season, decision-makers at clubs often feel like they’ve seen enough of their manager to make a judgment call, with plenty of games left to turn things around.

A club like Leicester City will certainly be in that boat, with their boss Marti Cifuentes the favourite to next face his marching orders in the second tier, with the Foxes languishing in mid-table.

Likewise, Birmingham City, who are seeing fellow promotees and big-spenders Wrexham accelerate away from them in the table, while Portsmouth may start getting twitchy with John Mousinho, given Pompey are only one point from the dropzone.

Any such departures, plus the potential of managers being poached, creates openings and positions to fill, and clubs will naturally see who the next-best leaders off the production line are. If they commence such a search, it won’t take them long to come across Skubala’s name.

Michael Skubala has done a lot with a little

Given some of the spending that we now see in League One, Skubala has worked wonders with his Lincoln side.

An understated window was likely part of the underrating of the Imps in the summer, but with free-transfer duo Adam Reach and Sonny Bradley, the Lincoln boss has turned to experience and got plenty from the pair.

Those two deals alone prove Skubala does not need millions to instigate an upturn in results, an attractive quality to recruiting clubs, who may have limited funds to spend in January, or may require the head coach’s adaptability if he makes a move after the player-transfer deadline.

Lincoln are in dreamland as things stand, but the longer things keep going well, the more likely eyes are to be drawn.