3 Michael Skubala replacements Lincoln City must eye ASAP ft. Everton coach | OneFootball

The Imps are on the verge of unexpectedly looking for a new head coach...

Lincoln City's excitement and optimism heading into the 2026-27 Championship season looks set to take a massive hit, with head coach Michael Skubala set to move on from Sincil Bank.

The Imps romped to the League One title this past season with 103 points, fending off the challenge of Cardiff City easily who were 12 points back in the end, and for the first time since 1961, the second tier awaits.

They'll have to do it without Skubala though, whose tenure in Lincolnshire is set to come to an end after two-and-a-half years following his move from Leeds United's coaching staff, with Bristol City set to hire the 43-year-old on a three-year contract, as first reported by The Telegraph's John Percy.

It comes as even more of a surprise given Skubala is reported to have signed a new Imps contract just last week when it was believed that Bournemouth coach Tommy Elphick was set to take on the job, and that new deal means that the Robins are set to pay in excess of £1 million for compensation.

As Skubala readies himself for a new challenge, Lincoln sporting director Jez George has a big task on his hands to find the perfect successor in the dugout - FLW takes a look at THREE potential candidates that City could eye up to lead the club into their new Championship era.

If Lincoln want to delve back into League One for a manager whose future looks somewhat uncertain, but also has a great track record, then perhaps look no further than Stockport County boss Dave Challinor.

A north west EFL stalwart as a player for the likes of the Hatters, Tranmere Rovers and Bury, Challinor's road to challenging for promotion as a manager in League One hasn't been a conventional one - it's taken him from Colwyn Bay - when they were in the English non-league system - to AFC Fylde, then to Hartlepool United before returning to Edgeley Park in the dugout.

Challinor has no fewer than seven promotions on his CV, having coached all four clubs to at least one rise up the pyramid, and he's had Stockport competing at the top end of League One for the previous two seasons, but he just hasn't quite been able to manage to get the Greater Manchester side back to the second tier.

Describing last weekend's Wembley defeat to Bolton Wanderers as a 'sliding doors' moment for County, Challinor could have left himself open to an approach from higher up the EFL pyramid, and with Lincoln evidently on an upward trajectory, the 50-year-old could be the perfect fit given his winning mentality - and a career win percentage of 53 per cent isn't half-bad.

Gerhard Struber

Lincoln could go down the Championship experience route instead of someone who's never managed at the level, and after the appointment of American businessman Ron Fowler as chairman earlier this year, as well as his stake in the club increasing, City may have the resources to attract someone like Gerhard Struber to Sincil Bank.

The Austrian coach was a relative unknown on British shores when Barnsley opted to hire him in 2019, having had a brief managerial stint with Wolfsberger in his native country, and despite the Tykes being bottom of the Championship at the time, he was able to keep the Yorkshire outfit in the division - helped by Wigan falling into adminstration and receiving a points deduction.

Having coached RB Salzburg's reserve team FC Liefering, Struber returned to the Red Bull system not long after keeping Barnsley in the second tier by heading to New York Red Bulls, and he also went on to manage Salzburg themselves and FC Koln before returning to England last summer, joining Bristol City after Liam Manning's exit.

The 49-year-old was perhaps harshly sacked by the Robins in March after they'd fallen to 16th position from eighth just five games prior,

ending their hopes of a play-off push, although he had seen star players Anis Mehmeti and Zak Vyner sold in January to Championship rivals without being replaced, whilst the club also banked a sell-on clause from Antoine Semenyo's move to Man City.

Struber likes to play high-pressing football, and whilst that may be quite ambitious for Lincoln's first Championship season, pushing the boat out for the European coach could be worth it.

When Lincoln hired Skubala in November 2023, they were bringing in a coach that had next to no senior managerial experience, with a short three-game stint as caretaker boss of Leeds alongside managing their under-21's side on two separate occasions.

The situation is a tad different this time around and it may be too risky to take a punt on a coach with no management experience given they're now in the Championship, but in Leighton Baines, could Lincoln strike gold once more on someone unproven?

Baines needs no introduction from his playing days, with over 600 senior appearances across stints with Wigan Athletic and Everton, as well as his 30 caps for England included in that, and since retirement, he has been honing his craft with the Toffees and working his way up the ranks.

The former left-back spent two-and-a-half years as under-18's manager for the Merseyside outfit before being promoted to be a part of David Moyes' backroom staff upon his return to the club in January 2025, having been in caretaker charge for one match in the FA Cup against Peterborough.

Baines will surely have learnt an awful lot under Moyes' tutelage in the last year-and-a-half, but now at the age of 41, he could be ready to spread his wings and become a number one of his own - Lincoln could give him the platform to do that, and of course with American football icon Landon Donovan being a former team-mate at Everton as well as being a strategic advisor at Lincoln, there's a link there to make it happen.