Just to reiterate the main conclusions from the article:
We are looking at the last 12 managers to win promotion from the Conference (2010 to 2015 inclusive).
- All 12 managers gained his experience in Tiers 3, 4, 5 or 6. Only one manager - Martin Allen - had managed above Tier 3, and that was just 4 games at Leicester City. Therefore, they have all been lower division/senior non-league specialists.
- Every manager with the exception of Martin Allen and Richard Money - in other words, 10 out of the 12 - had come up from Tier 6 and below, and every one of those 10 had at least one promotion and/or one championship in non-league football to their name already. In other words, they all had a track record of success in non-league football.
- Allen and Money are the exceptions because they had never managed below Tier 5. To compensate for that, both Allen and Money had won the L2 championship instead.
- All 12 had either won promotion and/or a championship at Tier 6 or below or made the National League play-offs, including Allen and Money. 8 of the 12 had done it more than once.
- Only Darrell Clarke and Gary Mills had not reached a Conference play-off or been promoted to the FL before, but they each had a Tier 6 championship to their name.
- Therefore, none of the last 12 managers to win promotion to the Football League was a rookie - every single one had experience elsewhere and had a good track record.
Past performance is no guarantee of future success, of course - and it doesn't mean that a manager who does not conform to this profile could not be a success - but 12/12 provides quite a compelling argument. If the last 6 years are anything to go by, it certainly looks like our next manager needs to have been successful in non-league football if we are serious about getting promotion.
If we now compare each of the many candidates that has been suggested this week against this profile, we suddenly have a limited short-list and some clear favourites.
It'll be interesting to see how Bob & his friends go about this.