MICHAEL APPLETON

… AND YOU WONDER WHY HE’S ONLY BEEN

His brutal apprenticeship would have scared off most budding managers – but Michael Appleton’s baptism of fire just lit the fuse. As Lincoln dare to dream of second-tier football for the first time in 60 years, he tells FFT of a gruelling journey full of dark places, awful owners and a belated bashing from Fergie

Words Joe Brewin

Michael Appleton was 37 when he learned that you’re never too old for a bollocking from Alex Ferguson. It had been 16 years since he’d last played for Manchester United, and he’d even managed three clubs of his own. Nonetheless, a Glaswegian tongue-lashing was heading his way.

In March 2013, Appleton had been sacked after 67 days in charge of Blackburn Rovers, by a man he’d never met. As his two previous paylords at Portsmouth and Blackpool would later be respectively jailed for bank fraud and found guilty of asset-stripping, it hadn’t been the easiest start for a young coach trying to make an impression. Fergie was unamused.

“He had a right pop at me, and rightly so,” Appleton tells FourFourTwo. “I hadn’t done due diligence before taking the jobs. I get it now, but at the time it was a bit ‘Bloody hell!’

“I hadn’t played under him for a long time, but he clearly had a lot of respect, to ask for a meeting and tell me some things. I needed to start making better decisions.” And he did.

RIP IT UP, START AGAIN

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Today, Appleton is relaxed but focused, with a steely determination that underpins all of his work at Lincoln City. The 45-year-old has experienced things most people never will, let alone managers, but he has fought through adversity to become one of the outstanding figures in the Football League. He has trawled the depths of despair as ‘quite an angry man’ mourning a lost playing career. Now, leading a bold era at Lincoln, Appleton knows exactly who he is and what he can do.

“I get stick off my wife,” he says. “She calls me ‘Flatline’, because sometimes she doesn’t know by my reactions whether we’ve won or lost. But there’s a reason for that. Inside, I’m buzzing – and there are times you’ve got to celebrate on the sidelines – but you can’t get too carried away. Losing as a manager is the worst feeling. I can’t think of one worse, other than grieving the loss of somebody you love. You take it personally until you win again.”

Thankfully, he hasn’t felt that way often this season. As FFT went to press, the Imps sat in the top two of League One, in only their second campaign at this level since 1998-99, despite Appleton dismantling the giant-killing squad that predecessor Danny Cowley left behind in September 2019. Cowley may have achieved two title-winning promotions, glory in the Football League Trophy and that epic run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2016–17 – as the first non-league side to advance that far since 1914 – but only two senior players have survived a ruthless overhaul, which has changed the culture of a club that’s still rising.

“Anywhere 12th and upwards would have been seen as progression,” admits Appleton. “That would have been better than last year [16th], but most importantly, we’d also made so many changes. Managing expectations as a coach is probably the single most important but hardest thing to do. If you’ve got a level of expectation that you can’t quite reach, the job can get away from you very quickly. One of the things I spoke about to the board was transparency: just being honest with people, including the Lincoln supporters. I was quite open, and I got a bit of stick at first by saying things might take a little time to improve, but the board were perfectly happy for me to get that message out there.