Right, the season has ended, the machine has been turned off. Time to stop licking the wounds and get cracking on rebuilding ourselves and looking forward and we are in need of a manager and James Rowberry becomes the first manager to be linked with us.

Minus the Black Beauty/Grandstand theme music and the smoking embers of the Phoenix Club, we need to build a new club, bigger, better, a super club. And while we’ve no games to keep us distracted, we need to fill these pages with something so here’s the first managerial rumour. James Rowberry.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/38-year-old-emerges-as-leading-contender-for-r

God knows if there’s any truth in this so take it all with a pinch of salt, but the 38-year-old has been linked with the Rochdale job.

Rowberry’s experience is quite limited, but he was manager of Newport County from October 2021 to October last year and was in charge for 52 games before he was sacked. Newport won 21 and lost 22 of those 52 games with a win % of 40% and he was given the sack after suffering defeat against Rochdale. Given how awful we’ve been this season, that could well be a fair outcome.

Since February, he’s had a coaching role with the Welsh FA.

Jim McNulty has been in charge since the sacking of Jim Bentley at the end of March. He has been joined by Kevin Gibbins who returned to assist him, but this was never announced. Their record since taking the reigns is 3 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats and I think that record puts them very much in the conversation to take the role permanently.

Watch this space I guess.

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls