Who should Swindon Town appoint to replace Scott Lindsey?

Scott Lindsey is reportedly off to Crawley Town, and now for the second time in the last seven months Swindon Town are looking for a new head coach, so who should they be looking at? Total Sport’s Joe Acklam looks at some of the options.

Firstly, despite many fans thinking that a more pragmatic approach is the only way to get out of League Two, the Swindon squad is in no way built to do this and a mid-season pivot is definitely not on the cards.

Therefore choices like Danny Cowley, in the unlikely event he would even take the job, is not in the question.

Sandro Di Michele, Clem Morfuni, and Rob Angus will be hoping to find another head coach committed to a possession-based style, with the hope that the new incumbent will be able to turn dominance into results with greater regularity than Lindsey was able to do.

If it were my decision, I would be looking for someone with a similar philosophy with the ball, but who looks to be more aggressive without it, pressing from the front, forcing errors and making it more difficult for teams to settle into the low blocks that have so often thwarted Swindon this season.

Additionally, although I think looking to give high level coaches their first shot in management is a good plan, bringing someone like that in mid-season is not particularly sensible as they have to adapt on the fly, so I will only be looking at people who have already held a managerial/ head coaching position.

My first suggestion would be a man who has already said he would be interested in taking over, David Artell.

The former-Gibraltarian international was at the helm of Crewe Alexandra for five years, where he was renowned for developing young players and playing attractive football, whilst also steering the railwaymen from the brink of relegation to the National League in 2017 to earning promotion to League One in 2021.

If there was ever a description of what Town are looking for, along with having strong experience, Artell is that man.

Another option is one that I suggested in the summer, whilst I was on the dark side writing for the Advertiser, Jonathan Woodgate.

The man well known for having made the worst debut in history did recently take up the post as a coach under Michael Carrick at Middlesbrough, but it is likely he would be willing to leave that to have the top job somewhere else.

Woodgate struggled in his first managerial stint with boyhood club Middlesbrough, as he tried to transform Tony Pulis’ side into one that bothered to have the ball on the floor during the game, before being replaced by Neil Warnock before the end of the season.

The managers either side of him tell the story that he was never set up for success at the Riverside, but when he took over at Bournemouth the following season, he turned around a flailing Cherries side to make the play-offs before bowing out in the postseason against Brentford.

He is now part of a coaching staff working wonders back at ‘Boro with an exciting attacking style and would be an interesting choice to take over at the County Ground and give him the chance to use what he has learnt since his first shot at coaching.

Liam Manning has been a name suggested at length since the Lindsey rumours came to the fore, and although I have my doubts he would drop down to League Two so soon after his successes with MK Dons last season, despite what happened this time around, it is not long ago he would have been top of the shortlist for Championship clubs.

His long coaching career within City Football Group implementing their possession and pressing football is exactly what Swindon need and if he is willing to drop a division then Town should absolutely pounce on the opportunity.

A last candidate that I can’t see many being excited by, but does intrigue me is Kevin Betsy.

What we have learned so far this season is that managing Crawley is hardly a fair crack of the whip (good luck Lindsey) and everything he did before points to him as being a top choice.

Five years with England youth sides has been a solid recipe for success for Rob Edwards and Steve Cooper, as well as Betsy having been at Arsenal under-23s says to me that at a club that doesn’t self-destruct every five minutes (although you could argue Swindon aren’t far off that) that he would do rather well.

He would not be top of my list, but he is someone that I think is worth having a conversation with whilst conducting the search.