Four '˜potential managers' already spoken to as Cobblers chairman Thomas targets Wilder replacement

Chairman Kelvin Thomas has revealed he has already held informal discussions with four potential Cobblers managers as he begins the process of replacing Chris Wilder.
Chairman Kelvin ThomasChairman Kelvin Thomas
Chairman Kelvin Thomas

Wilder quit Northampton on Thursday to take up the manager’s role at Sheffield United, and he is taking assistant Alan Knill and head of sports science Matt Prestridge with him.

The trio have taken up their roles at Bramall Lane with immediate effect, and Thomas is now concentrating on getting the right people in to replace them.

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The chairman has been prepared for Wilder’s departure, having been resigned to the fact the manager would be leaving since Monday after he agreed to talk to Charlton Athletic about taking the manager’s job there.

It has transpired that Wilder has headed to south Yorkshire rather than south London, but Thomas revealed the replacement process is well underway.

“As I said on Monday I wanted a quick resolution to this situation with Chris, so I am pleased this has taken less than a week,” said Thomas.

“In preparation we have already begun informal discussions and I have met four potential managers as part of the initial search.

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“We also have a list of targets to speak with and will see what applications come through in the next few days.

“It is important that the process is thorough and professional, and we will all be working hard to find the right type of manager to lead this football club into league one.”

And he added: “Obviously we do a lot of work behind the scenes and we have started the process already.

“I haven’t been surprised at the interest, because I have been through it before.

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“This is a good job, so I’ve not been surprised at the interest, but I have been pleased with the amount of interest.

“It has been good because we will get a good candidate out of it.

“We are not going to rush it, but we would like to do it as quickly as we can because we have preparations to continue.

“We have to talk to players, and it would be nice to have a manager in place once we start our recruitment process in depth.

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“We will be working very hard on that, as we have been, and we will get it moving pretty quickly.”

The club are inviting ‘serious applications’ for the manager’s job, and they should be emailed to chief executive [email protected].