By Nathan Jackson
February 14 2011

Chris Sutton has emerged as one of the favourites for the vacant managerial position at Scottish side Ross County. Sutton spent exactly one year at Sincil Bank, turning the Imps from a team comfortable midtable side into one that has been lucky to escape the drop twice.

Back in September 2009 we sacked Peter Jackson for only getting us to midtable, but little did Lincoln fans know what was about to come. Chris Sutton was the shock appointment as the new manager and from the day he was appointed to the day he resigned, exactly a year to the day later, he took everything positive this club had going for it and tore it apart.

At the time of his appointment it was described as a "gamble" by the Imps bored and to be fair, I was open minded at the time as I respected Sutton as a player, but his negative "sit on a lead" style of football, combined with the fact he tore apart a Lincoln side who had finished 13th the season before and turned them into relegation candidates really changed my mind.

His recruits were generally poor to below average in terms of quality. Some were good on paper, such as Eric Lichaj and Nathan Baker, but neither performed to their potential at Sincil Bank and realistically, only three/four of Sutton's signings can be considered to be an astute signing.

Chris Herd, Davide Somma and Adam Watts are three of the very few Sutton signings to do well during their time at the club, whereas most of Sutton's signings would compete to be in the "Worst Ever Lincoln XI" side. Players such as Michael Gordon, Khano Smith, Michael Uwezu, Brian Gilmour and Drewe Broughton have made either no impact and/or have been absolutely terrible. 

Had it not been for the incredibly poor form of Grimsby and Darlington during the season, it is likely that the Imps would currently be playing Blue Square Premier football because of Sutton.

With a winning record of just 14 in 51, Sutton didn't win many friends at Sincil Bank, forcing first teamers to train with the youth team and there were reports he wouldn't even talk to the injured players. His rude nature to most of the fans and belittling the club at every opportunity also left Sutton with very few fans in the stands, stands that quickly emptied under his reign.

September 29th 2010 was a brilliant day to be an Imp as Sutton resigned, thus ending the year long decay of this football club and we are only just recovering from this. Sutton's cancerous reign as Lincoln manager was still felt for months after his departure and it was only when Tilson dropped most of Suttons' players that the team started winning.

Being out of football since then, Sutton has emerged as a contender for the vacant managerial vacancy at Ross County, a side who are on a long winless run. They recently got sacked Willie McStay with the club sitting 8th in the Scottish First Division. Club Chairman Rob McGregor confirmed to the BBC that Sutton was one of those that applied for the job, calling him a "good quality applicant."

Our thoughts and prayers will be with Ross County if he is appointed.

Watch out Ross County, the Sutton cancer might be coming

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 14/02/2011 19:21

theimps.ka
14/02/2011 19:21

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redimp981
15/02/2011 15:24

Scottish Div 4 seems about right

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mightyimp1
15/02/2011 19:24

I would have said Gilmour was one of his better signings, did quite well I thought

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plumbob
15/02/2011 22:39

Whilst I agree that he left us in a major hole, it is a little unfair to say he turned a mid-table side into a two time relegation dodger.
Lets not forget he inherited a side in desparate trouble and through quality loans dodged the first buller. Regardless of how much you may dislike him, you cannot hold him responsible for the first of his two seasons. If anything he saved us first time around!

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Kate Jackson
16/02/2011 08:59

See the thing was that everyone said he was dealing with Jackson's squad all the time, but from the fourth/fifth game onwards, more than half of the outfield players were players that he bought to the club, so to completely blame Jackson for it is also harsh.

Good Luck, Mr Gorsky

http://twitter.com/#!/katejackson84
http://www.katejackson84.blogspot.com

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skeggyimp
16/02/2011 09:58

I don't think Jackson was any better than Sutton, just my opinion, but I think we were heading for the bottom when Jacko left. I agree that Sutton was no better and wouldn't have stopped the slide.
As I've said before at least it didn't cost anything to get rid of Sutton, money which is probibly being used by Tilson to help build a team.

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