What can Northampton fans expect from their new Manager?

The wait for Cobblers fans is over. Justin Edinburgh has been named as the new man in charge on a two and a half year deal. This appointment comes just 10 days after he was sacked by Gillingham and just 4 days after the sacking of Rob Page.

It appears to be a solid appointment from the club who were after a new man following a poor run of form which has seen an alarming slide down the table. Edinburgh has done enough in his interviews to impress Chairman Kelvin Thomas despite being sacked by Gillingham just 10 days ago. The new manager has an impressive 41% win percentage over almost 400 games as a Manager and is someone who has worked there way up the footballing ladder having previously managed Billericay Town (as a player manager), Fisher Athletic, Grays Athletic, Rushden & Diamonds, Newport County and Gillingham.

The main success in Edinburgh’s career is getting Newport Town in to the Football League. Whilst at Newport back in 2014 he was approached by Northampton as he was seen by former Chairman David Cardoza as the man to save the clubs league status although he turned down the approach and the Cobblers went on to appoint Chris Wilder from Oxford United. He did however leave Newport the following year in February 2015 after being approached by Gillingham, when he left Newport County were in 6th place in League Two. He came in to Gillingham when the club were just 2 points above the relegation zome and guided them to a 12th placed finish.

Following the news of his appointment I spoke earlier to Gillingham fan Sam Davis and asked him a few questions about what the fans can expect from their new manager. The first thing I asked was about the style of play that Edinburgh liked to implement in his teams. Sam said “He likes his players to get the ball on the ground, he is not a fan of the long ball approach”. This is music to Northampton fans ears who have recently grown disillusioned with their teams style of play which saw them knocking the ball up to the striker from their own half. Sam also told me that at Gillingham Justin Edinburgh preferred to use a diamond 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2 but would occasionally play 4-3-3 so it is fair to say that he will not be afraid to change things if they are not working or depending on the opposition.

Following on from that question I asked him where did it all go wrong for him at Gillingham? He told me that he seemed to lose the dressing room with Sam saying that “the players didn’t seem interested in playing for him, with some of the loan signings looking like they didn’t want to be there”. Following on from this I asked about Edinburgh’s favoured transfer policy, seeing if he is a big fan of using the loan market. Sam told me that “he likes using his loan players as he did not have the budget to attract better players to suit his style of play on permanent contracts”.

With a slightly larger playing budget than at Gillingham it remains to be seen if he will favour the loan market in the short time he has to get players in but Northampton fans can be hopeful of improved performances on the pitch with a more attractive playing style. How will he get on? Only time will tell!

Are you happy with the appointment of Justin Edinburgh? Let me know by tweeting me! My Twitter handle is JamieDuncan1998 with a link to my profile also at the bottom of the page!