SCOTTISH League One club Edinburgh City are seeking to appoint their fourth manager as an SPFL club after Alan Maybury’s departure was announced on Tuesday evening. The 45-year-old Irishman exits Meadowbank after just over 18 months in the role, during which he guided the club to promotion from League Two in the playoffs.
The Citizens have struggled in the early stages of the new campaign after achieving a sixth-place finish in their inaugural season as a third tier club, their highest-ever league position. The Meadowbank side are winless in a run stretching 16 matches with their last victory recorded in April.
They are currently languishing at the foot of the table, six points adrift of eighth-placed Annan Athletic with only two points from their opening eight league matches.
Edinburgh City FC can confirm that we have mutually agreed to part ways with Manager Alan Maybury.
Alan will always have a part in the club’s history having taken us to League One for the first time. We want to wish Alan all the best for the future and appreciate everything he… pic.twitter.com/Uvn3GLq5Rb
— Edinburgh City FC (@EdinburghCityFC) October 3, 2023
The next appointment will be the first test of John Dickson’s chairmanship, after he took the reins in June of this year. Let’s dissect potential candidates that the club could task with directing their season back on track…
Danny Lennon
The 54-year-old has been out of work since leaving Scottish League Two club Clyde last October. Lennon, who is revered for lifting the Scottish League Cup with St Mirren, has vast experience in the lower divisions, notably achieving promotion with the Bully Wee via the playoffs in 2019 and at Cowdenbeath, where he achieved successive promotions from the old Third Division.
Lennon has also been successful in preserving clubs’ league status, namely Alloa Athletic in the 2014-15 Championship playoffs as well as arguably having both St Mirren and Clyde punching above their weight in the Scottish Premiership and League One respectively. It is those achievements and improving clubs in a similar predicament as Edinburgh that could make the experienced gaffer an enticing proposition.
Kevin Thomson
The former Rangers midfielder has remained out of the game after he resigned from his position at Kelty Hearts last May, where he lifted the Scottish League Two trophy, the club’s first silverware in the SPFL. Thomson has reportedly been searching for the right club to herald his return to the dugout and could view the capital club as an ideal prospect to rebuild his reputation and ascertain his standing as a promising young manager in Scottish football.
Mark Kerr
The club have installed the former Ayr United manager in interim charge for Saturday’s meeting with Kelty Hearts and the 41-year-old could view it as a chance to impress the Meadowbank powerbrokers. Kerr was appointed player-manager at the Honest Men in September 2019 after Ian McCall departed for Partick Thistle and led the club to fourth place in the Scottish Championship, before the season was curtailed due to the pandemic.
The club could draw inspiration from Maybury’s appointment, an initial interim stint which arguably proved successful and offer Kerr the chance to return to management in his own right.
