Cowleys get Imps ready for take-off
JUST across the road from the Dambusters and Red Arrows, the family firm who gave Lincoln City their wings has moved in.
And as managerial brotherhood Danny and Nicky Cowley inspected the fruits of their FA Cup giantkilling feats, there was a sense the Imps are ready for take-off.
Beneath the celestial approval of a rainbow overhead, the Cowleys christened the £1.3million training ground Lincoln bought with the loose change from turning over Ipswich, Brighton and Burnley on that astonishing run to the quarter-finals
❑ as a nonLeague HARINGEY club Borough will in 2016-17. make their first
Every now appearance in the and then, the FA Cup first round neighbours tonight. from RAF
The Isthmian Scampton
League Premier would fly
Division side take on past, trailing plumes of AFC Wimbledon of smoke across League One in a the horizon. match live on BBC2. For years, the Red Arrows have been the fastest climbers in Lincolnshire and Scampton is also where 617 Squadron – Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s celebrated Dambusters – took off to wreak havoc during the Second World War.
But under the Cowleys, Lincoln have been reaching unprecedented heights of their own. First it was promotion back to the Football League and that lucrative cup run. Last season they won the EFL Trophy at Wembley and the League Two play-offs.
And tomorrow they join the chase for a share of £30m FA Cup loot against Northampton in the
EXCLUSIVE
first round. Manager Danny Cowley, sitting alongside his assistant and younger brother Nicky, said: “We would not be moving in here, with the Red Arrows as neighbours, if it wasn’t for that cup run.
“It was important not just to enjoy our spell in the limelight and then disappear back into the shadows with nothing to show for it. The FA Cup gave us a platform for sustained success. I was 40 last week and I don’t want to wish my life away, so we keep working hard to improve.
“For lads who cut their teeth in management at a club called Concord Rangers, I guess it’s appropriate for us to train next to a famous airbase.” The Elite Performance Centre is a work in progress but the pitches are pristine and the Cowleys are in for the long haul, having turned down a move to Ipswich and signed new contracts.
“In football, trust is hard to find. We have similar personalities but different skill sets and we work well together,” said Danny.
“If we split up, we’d only be half as good at our jobs. We’ve had offers which could have changed our lives financially, but we’re not driven that way. Our ambition is to get hold of something and make it better.
“To do that, you need time. We know where we want to go.” GROWING UP on the wrong side of the tracks in Vienna, Marko Arnautovic would sometimes resort to his fists to sort out a problem.
He quickly learnt the consequence of bad decisions, how choosing the wrong path can lead to some very dark places. Violence, drug-dealing, prison.
Arnautovic had football to steer him towards safety and he is now a multi-millionaire international. But in his adopted home city, he has found the problems facing the young are the same – yet the consequences are more dire still. Instead of fists, blades have become the weapon of choice in London, and the cost is terrifying.
“Before, back in the day when I was young, when you had some problems, you dealt with it with your hands. No one had a knife,” he said.
“Now it has changed. There are a lot of mafia movies that show that maybe you are a tough guy when you put something in your pocket. But it is very dangerous.”
Arnautovic is taking a handson approach in West Ham’s Players’ Project, launched this week. The club will commit £10million over the next three