[NoSkillz]

The Job Search Begins

It was certainly risky to resign from a role where I was guaranteed to be coaching a Scottish Championship club in 2020/21 but I felt this was the right time to look at turning this into a paying career. I guess I could have waited until a job offer came my way before resigning but I was a bit put off by the fact that my board at Queen's Park, obviously worried that I was going to be looking at other opportunities, rejected my request to take a coaching course while on summer holiday.

I thought that was ridiculous so I decided to take my chances and resign with immediate effect.


May 4, 2020

I was able to guide Queen's Park to two promotions in as many years and certainly was gaining respect as a result in the football world. That said, my reputation within the game was still considered "Nominal" at 30%, up considerably from June 2018 when I started at Queen's Park with a "Minimal" 5% rating.

I'd be concentrating my efforts on continuing my work in Scotland but I didn't want to go back to League One or Two...I felt I had earned the right to manage in the Scottish Championship or perhaps even the Premiership but we'll see what opportunities present themselves.

I'd also be considering moving to England if the right opportunity was available. I figured League Two in England would be an acceptable starting point.

So on the morning after my resignation from Queen's Park, my agent came to me with a list of potential openings in the job market:

- Dundee United (Scottish Championship)
- Norwich City (English Championship)
- Rotherham United (English League One)
- Newport County (English League Two)

The opportunity at Dundee United looked interesting. The club had just finished 8th in the Scottish Championship to barely stay afloat in that division. Manager Frank Nuttall resigned on May 3rd (just like I did) so this was a brand new job opening in the same division that I would have been managing in if I had kept the Queen's Park job.

Norwich City and Rotherham United sacked their managers (Frank Lampard and Scott Parker respectively) on the same day: April 18th. So these jobs had been open for a couple weeks, meaning they were likely already in the interview phase. Norwich is a pretty big club...maybe too big for me at this point but they are coming off a 20th place finish in the English Championship, good enough to stay in the second tier for another season. Meanwhile, Rotherham was 17th in League One.

Lastly, we have Newport County - they finished 19th in League Two and sacked manager David Wilson two days ago.

I decided to apply for the jobs at Dundee United, Norwich City and Rotherham United. I'd hold off on Newport County for now.