Ex-Lincoln City manager Chris Sutton has been labelled as ‘a success’ by City chairman Bob Dorrian—despite leaving the club in a precarious position in the depths of League Two.
Sutton resigned from his position late on Tuesday [28th September] night after the stalemate with Burton Albion at Sincil Bank, citing ‘personal reasons’ for his departure.
But Dorrian, whilst admitting he was frustrated by Sutton’s decision to leave after a year in the job, says that the Imps history books will document the former Celtic frontman favourably.
Dorrian said: “Chris was probably responsible for keeping us in the Football League last season so that is a massive success in my eyes. This season we have played nine games. We haven’t done terribly well but by the same token we have got a number of new players in the side who all have to gel.”
“Everything we’ve done under Chris Sutton has been for the best. We have a better squad of players now. The club is looking like we could start to do something pretty soon. The money that we spent was not wasted at all.”
Dorrian, who became chairman of the club back in June, said Sutton told him he wanted to resign during a routine after-match meeting in the ex-manager’s Sincil Bank office.
Despite the surprise nature of the resignation, Dorrian flatly denied allegations of a rift between the levels of management and the board at the football club, maintaining that he enjoyed an ‘extremely good relationship’ with Sutton.
He said: “We were totally committed, myself and the board, to Chris Sutton. We had a vision of Chris taking us to mid-table mediocrity or above this season and hopefully pushing on next year. As far as the board were concerned we were desperate to keep Chris Sutton here, not only for this season but for next season as well, at least.”
Speaking on the possibility of a lack of finances being the primary reason behind Sutton’s departure, Dorrian said: As far as the board are concerned, and I’m sure Chris Sutton will back us up on this one, we’ve made all the money available to him that we possibly can. If he’s asked for more we’ve told him we will find the means to get that money. We’ve done everything we possibly can to support Chris and have done nothing to instigate this in any shape or form.”
Similarly, the chairman denied any knowledge of interest from Scottish giants Celtic in his former manager. Some reports had linked Sutton with a role in the youth setup at Parkhead.
Scott Lindsey and Paul Musselwhite will temporarily take over the reigns of the Imps first team. But Dorrian promised supporters that he would move quickly to appoint a new manager permanently, and outlined the kind of man that he and the board would be looking to seek out.
He said: “We have a meeting tomorrow [Thursday 30th September] evening. I suspect that we’ll probably be looking again at somebody up and coming, maybe from the non-leagues. Or alternatively a young, experienced league manager or ex-league manager.”