Hartlepool United have appointed Simon Grayson as the National League club's new manager.

Grayson replaces Australian Anthony Limbrick, who was sacked on Thursday after four months in the role.

The 55-year-old's most recent job was with Lalitpur City in the Nepal Super League, where he won the title in April. He has managed seven clubs in England, including Leeds and Preston, as well as Bengaluru in the Indian Super League.

"The club has gone through some tough times recently but by working hard together as a staff and fanbase we can bring back the good times which this football club deserves," Grayson told the club's website, external.

Pools finished last season 11th, eight points outside the play-offs.

"I'm delighted that Simon has accepted the role," said club chairman Raj Singh.

"Simon is someone who has been on our radar for a while and he's been my preferred candidate in the past when we've looked for managers, but for one reason or the other it didn't come off."

After retiring from playing in 2006, Grayson has won promotion from League One to the Championship with Blackpool, Leeds, Huddersfield and Preston in his managerial career.

Hartlepool have sacked manager Anthony Limbrick after four months in charge.

Former The New Saints boss Limbrick took over from Lennie Lawrence in February and guided Pools to an 11th-placed finish in the National League.

Earlier this week it was reported that Pools had an approach for Boston boss Graham Coughlan turned down.

Hartlepool are up for sale after owner Raj Singh resigned as chairman in March.

"We'd like to thank Anthony for all his hard work and efforts during his time with the club and wish him all the very best for the future," Pools said in a statement., external

"All board members were consulted and it was decided a change was needed

As a part of our continual review of not only the playing squad but also the professional football management and coaching staff, the following structure and appointments are being put in place for the start of the 2025/26 season.

In addition to the existing coaching staff reporting to manager Paul Heckingbottom – Stuart McCall, Peter Murphy and Mike Pollitt – we are delighted to announce the appointment of Jason Euell as a First Team Coach. Jason joins us having played over 400 league games in his career, the majority of which came at the highest level of English football, as well as representing Jamaica and England U21s internationally.

Andy Liddell joins us as Fitness Coach to replace John Lucas who is taking up a similar role within the Australian A-League. John leaves us with our best wishes and thanks. Andy, who made more than 650 appearances as a player, has previously worked in fitness coaching roles with Ipswich Town, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Rapid Bucharest.

The club’s Head of Recruitment, James Wallace will appoint Tom Reeves to his staff from 23rd June 2025 as Chief Scout. Tom joins us having had extensive scouting experience most recently with Middlesbrough and Norwich City. Ben Smith, who was originally a Performance Analyst, completes James’ in-house team as a Recruitment Analyst. We will no longer be using MRKT Insights but thank their staff for their work over the last few years.

The performance analysis team under Charlie Ager welcomes Joe Walmsley, who arrives from Wigan Athletic. James McGown and Tom Hughes have left this team and depart with our best wishes for the future.

The physiotherapy and medical team remain unaltered under Matt Jackson and Dr Dominic Lakeland.

The 2025-26 Carabao Cup will include a preliminary round to accommodate the increased number of Premier League clubs with European commitments.

Nine top-flight sides are set to participate in European competitions next season, prompting the change to help reduce the number of clubs in the first two rounds.

The preliminary round will feature the two sides promoted from the National League and the two clubs who finished 21st and 22nd in League Two.

They will be separated regionally, as is customary with the competition's early rounds, meaning Accrington Stanley will face Oldham Athletic while Barnet take on Newport County.

The home sides for those ties will be drawn at the same time as the draw for round one, on 26 June at 16:30 BST.

All EFL clubs - other than the two eliminated in the preliminary round - will participate in round one of the competition.

The 11 Premier League sides not in Europe enter at the second-round stage while the nine sides to have qualified for Europe - Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace - come in at round three.

Palace are waiting for their participation in the Europa League to be rubber-stamped by Uefa, as John Textor's Eagle Football group has a minority shareholding in Palace and a majority stake in French side Lyon, who have also qualified for next season's European competition.

Carabao Cup 2025-26 fixture dates
Preliminary round: week commencing 4 August 2025

Round one: week commencing 11 August 2025

Round two: week commencing 25 August 2025

Round three: split between week commencing 15 September and 22 September 2025 to accommodate clubs participating in Champions League and Europa League

Round four: week commencing 27 October 2025

Round five: week commencing 15 December 2025

Semi-final first leg: week commencing 12 January 2026

Semi-final second leg: week commencing 2 February 2026

Goalkeeper Nick Townsend has joined National League side Eastleigh following his departure from Newport County.

The Antigua and Barbuda international was offered a new deal by The Exiles, but decided to leave Rodney Parade after seven years and 209 appearances.

Townsend, who was voted Newport's Supporters Player of the Year for the last two seasons, was out of contract this summer.

The 30-year-old former Barnsley keeper joins an Eastleigh side that finished 13th in the National League last season.

"It's exciting for me and my family to have a fresh start down here," Townsend told the club's website.

Hull City have appointed Sergej Jakirovic as their new head coach on a two-year deal.

The 48-year-old Bosnian joins the Championship side after a short spell in charge of Turkish Super Lig outfit Kayserispor.

The Tigers sacked boss Ruben Selles last month after they narrowly avoided relegation to League One, staying up on goal difference.

Jakirovic has managed in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia, and was only appointed head coach of Kayserispor in January but left the club by mutual consent, external on Sunday.

A Hull City statement confirmed they had "agreed a settlement" with the Turkish club for Jakirovic to join the Tigers.

The deal has the option of a further year, in the club's favour.

Former Bosnia defender Jakirovic led Dinamo Zagreb to the Croatian league and cup double in 2023-24.

However, he left Zagreb in September two days after overseeing their heaviest ever defeat, a 9-2 reverse at Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

He is the third appointment at MKM Stadium since Liam Rosenior was sacked in May 2024 after guiding the East Yorkshire side to a seventh-placed finish in the Championship.

German Tim Walter only lasted until November when he was sacked with the Tigers in the bottom three.

Spaniard Selles followed him out of the door six months later despite securing second-tier survival with a draw at Portsmouth on the final day.

Jakirovic now moves to Humberside after guiding Kayserispor to a 13th-placed finish, having arrived when the club was in the relegation zone.

He is the fifth managerial appointment under the watch of chairman Acun Ilicali, who took over in January 2022.

"After a thorough and extensive recruitment process, we are delighted to secure the services of Sergej," Turkish businessman Ilicali told the club's website, external.

"We believe in the football that he will bring to the MKM Stadium for us and importantly, he has proven himself to be a winner throughout his career.

"My dream for our club has never changed from the first day I took over, and I believe in Sergej as we look forward to the 2025-26 Championship campaign together as one family."

Jakirovic will bring coaches Marko Salatovic, Marin Ivancic and Andjelo Roguljic with him to Humberside to work alongside Andy Dawson and Erbil Bozkurt in the Tigers' backroom staff.

Never thought I'd ever cheer for The Taffs!!! But last night was a great effort - great match - great drama.

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=13808

New Norwich City boss Liam Manning says he is back in the city to win, not for old times.

The boyhood Canaries fan has been speaking for the first time since being appointed as the Championship club's new boss last week.

Manning becomes the first Norwich-born head coach at Carrow Road, having led Bristol City to the play-offs last season.

"It'll help knowing the city, the history of the club and some of the fans and former players but the biggest driver was always the club, the ambition, the project and what we're trying to achieve," he told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"It's not coming back here for niceties, it's coming back to be successful."


The 39-year-old former Norwich youth player also coached in Ipswich Town's academy before taking MK Dons to the League One play-offs in 2022 and had a brief spell at Oxford United who were second in the third tier when he left to join Bristol City.

"My first live match was here, my first season ticket was here and I've got some fond memories - it's such a fantastic city, fantastic fanbase, so if you can achieve here you can be remembered so we'll be doing everything we can to try to bring success to people," he said.

Manning admits leaving Ashton Gate was not the easiest decision having taken Bristol City to a sixth-placed finish but also with the support he was given following the death of his baby son Theo in October.

"Any move you make in this game is difficult so in terms of the 18 months I had there it was successful and obviously a challenging time personally which creates a a level of affiliation and empathy with the people there," he said.

"But when we had the discussions (at Norwich) of what it looks like and the direction - knowing the club and the fanbase and the ambition here, it matches with me extremely well so it was a difficult decision but I'm sure it's the right one."

Norwich finished 13th in the Championship last season, 11 points short of the play-offs, and sacked head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup in April, leaving Manning to become the Norfolk club's fourth permanent boss in under four years.

"We're in the results business so we have to win and I want to win but to sustain winning it has to be underpinned by some really good practices and processes and a really strong culture," said the new boss.

"You go into the season wanting to finish in the top six, it's understanding how you do that - that's the end goal."

He will immediately turn his attentions to building Norwich's squad for next season with speculation surrounding the futures of forwards Josh Sargent and Borja Sainz in particular, while they have been linked with Swansea's out-of-contract defender Harry Darling, who Manning worked with at MK Dons.

"I had a terrific time with Harry at MK Dons and he was outstanding - he's really excelled at the level and there isn't a huge amount of players at his age or his profile who are available," said Manning.

"He'll have a large amount of interest but he's definitely someone for me who would be a good fit."

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