West Bromwich Albion Under 23’s coach Michael Appleton is now the odds on favourite to become the new Lincoln City manager as reported by Birmingham Live.
Michael Flynn who is currently manager of Newport County was the previous choice by the Imps but those talks have fallen through and Appleton now appears to be the sole front runner for the position.
Lincoln drew 1-1 with Rochdale on Tuesday evening and it is believed that Appleton was in attendance for the game, potentially casting an eye over his new side.
Danny Cowley recently departed for Championship side Huddersfield Town and the Baggies youth coach is now the favourite to replace him with him said to be eager to get back into senior management after having a taste of this most notable with Oxford United back in 2014 until 2017.
During his three years at Oxford, Appleton secured automatic promotion to League One and also led them to the final of the EFL Trophy on two occasions.
Also having managed Portsmouth and Blackburn Rovers, despite him being relatively young in managerial terms he does possess a fair amount of experience at this level in the EFL.
He left Oxford in 2017 for the assistant manager’s role at Leicester City, working under Craig Shakespeare.
When Shakespeare was sacked, Appleton was placed in temporary charge of the team but he then departed the King Power Stadium following the appointment of Claude Puel.
He has only been in charge of the West Brom Under 23’s since last month and this would present a real disappointment to the Baggies hierarchy who have recently appointed Richard Stevens as their Academy Coach and were hoping their set up was now complete.
With this news and the possible departure of Appleton, they could well be searching for a new candidate for the position.
