Next Northampton Manager Odds: Six replacements for Jon Brady

Jon Brady is one of the greatest managers in the modern era of Northampton Town, so the Aussie leaves big shoes to fill at the Cobblers after walking away this week. 

EFL pundit Gab Sutton discusses tailor-made replacements in the next Northampton manager odds. 

Andy Woodman

Andy Woodman would appeal to both developmental and pragmatic criteria.

After winning the FA Trophy with Bromley in 2022, he led them to promotion to the EFL for the first time in the club’s history two years later, on course for League Two safet this season.

At the same time, the 53-year-old’s former position as Head of Goalkeeping at Arsenal means he has valuable contacts at the top of the game, and has shown he can nurture talent – like wing-back Danny Imray, on loan from Crystal Palace. 

Andy Peaks

Peaks led Tamworth to the Southern League Premier Division title in 2022/23, to top spot in the National League North last season, and on course for step-1 stabilisation this term, via a glamorous FA Cup tie with Tottenham to come.

Historically, Northampton have had big-name managers, like Pat Crerand, Gary Johnson, Aidy Boothroyd, Justin Edinburgh and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who have not done so well – to different extents.

Whereas, they’ve had lesser known, up-and-coming managers who have really delivered, like Bill Dodgin, Graham Carr, Ian Atkins, Chris Wilder and Jon Brady.

So, Peaks’ low-profile shouldn’t be a concern for Teyn fans, if he has the right qualities for the job: you could argue that his achievements at the Lamb make him better qualified than Brady might have been when he first took interim charge. 

John Coleman

In order to attain League One sustainability, Northampton will need a manager who can deliver results against the odds, and few have done that more than John Coleman.

Best known for his work across a quarter of a century at Accrington Stanley, over two stints interrupted only by a couple of years, Coleman won four titles with the Reds: the Northern Premier League Division One in 1999/00, the NPL in 2002/03, the iconic return to the Football League of 2005/06, and 2017/18’s inspirational League Two success.

Not only did ‘Coley’ keep the club in the Football League throughout his tenure after winning the Conference, he also led them to League Two Play-Off near-misses in 2010/11 and 2015/16 – incredibly unfortunate to miss out on automatic promotion with the Cobblers in the latter – and five consecutive seasons in League One, on a bottom-end League Two budget, including successive top half finishes.

As recently as 2021/22, Accy finished 12th - a place below Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich, which seems astonishing given subsequent context.

The following season, Stanley suffered a mounting injury list with up to around 15 players absent at any one time, yet still managed to stave off mathematical relegation until the final day.

So, Northampton have, pound-for-pound, one of the best managers in the Football League this century available, without the need for club compensation.

And, while Coleman may have roots in the north-west, there may also be logistical reasons for him to move further south.

Gary Rowett

Over the last decade, Rowett has proven himself to be one of the most reliable Championship managers.

Last season’s relegation with Birmingham can be forgiven, given that the team accrued 11 points from eight games under him, which would have been enough for a top half finish across a whole campaign - the damage had been done before him, while Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday and QPR all happened to finish with excellent form.

So, with solid work done in B9, both in his second stint and especially in his first, across two years, then four strong years at Millwall, with the regular Play-Off outsiders having enjoyed one of the best defensive records in the second-tier, as well initiating Burton Albion’s rise in the mid-2010s, the only real blemish on Rowett’s CV is Stoke.

And, as Paul Lambert, Nathan Jones, Michael O’Neill, Alex Neil and Steven Schumacher will tell us, succeeding in that corner of the Potteries isn’t easy.

So, Rowett might not want to be linked with jobs at struggling League One clubs, feeling he has done more than enough in the Championship to earn another opportunity at that level.

The 50-year-old has only been in work for two of the last 14 months, though, and may be keen to get his hands dirty again.

As I discovered when speaking to Rowett for #EFLDebate, it became clear that he wants his next job to be somewhere that can be about more than simply survival. 

Historically, that hasn’t always been the case for Northampton at this level, so much will depend on whether the 25% stake bought by Nigel Le Quesne back in April can help move the budgetary needle. 

Michael Appleton

Fantastic coach, an elite developer of talent, but a bad fit.

What Northampton Town need right now, is a manager who can have an immediate impact on a whole club, and it’s not something Appleton has ever done.

His most successful periods as a manager, 2015/16’s League Two promotion-winning campaign with Oxford and their subsequent top half finish in League One, with memorable cup runs in both, then Lincoln’s League One Play-Off Finalists of 2020/21, were both preceded by underwhelming debut campaigns.

So, when he’s had patient owners in Ian Lenagan at Oxford and Clive Nates at Lincoln, who were prepared to give him time when he was unpopular with fans, he’s had the coaching nous to build good teams in his second seasons.

In this case, the Northampton manager can’t be unpopular with the fans initially, because the short-term stakes are too high.

There’d be too great a minority of supporters who would resent him for the “best team in the league” comments from 2015-16 as then-Oxford manager, and that would be compounded by his perceived lack of outward enthusiasm and public appreciation of fans at the end of games.

The manager has to be a popular figure who will galvanize everybody: especially in a relegation battle.

Great coach, terrible fit.

Ian Sampson

Sampson’s main USP is that he understands the fabric of the club, already has a connection with supporters and knows how to galvanize people.

The fact the board were reluctant to accept Brady’s resignation shows they would prefer some form of continuity at this stage, and Sampson is the appointment likeliest to deliver that.

At the same time, it didn’t work out exactly as hoped for Sampson in his first spell as manager, and he hasn’t managed since leaving the post in 2011, other than a brief stint at Corby Town the following year.

So, Sampson could be the one to bring the club together for a few games in Brady’s absence, as a respected member of the staff, but there may be better options for the number one gig beyond that.