Gainsborough Trinity Condemns Fake Manager Targeting Players

Gainsborough Trinity have issued a fierce condemnation after discovering someone has been posing as their manager and making bogus transfer and wage offers to players across non-league football.

The Northern Premier League Premier Division side revealed that an individual has contacted “a number of players” at various levels of the non-league pyramid, falsely claiming to represent boss Russ Wilcox.

Chief executive Matt Boles moved quickly to draw a clear line.

He stressed that any approaches made did not come from Wilcox or from the club in any capacity, and that Trinity want no doubt left hanging over the situation.

“We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible,” Boles said on the club’s website. “Impersonating a football manager and making false representations to players is completely unacceptable and has the potential to cause unnecessary disruption and reputational damage to players, managers and clubs.”

The alarm was raised when managers and officials from other clubs went straight to the source. They contacted Wilcox directly, suspecting something was wrong with the tone and content of the messages they were seeing.

Their suspicions were quickly confirmed.

“Many have done so precisely because they know Russ, know the professional standards by which he conducts himself, and immediately recognised that this is not the manner in which he would approach or attempt to recruit a player,” Boles explained.

Once the pattern of fake approaches became clear, the response from Gainsborough hardened. Boles delivered a blunt message to the impersonator.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “Stop impersonating our manager, stop wasting the time of players and clubs across the non-league game and, quite frankly, get a life.”

Trinity have reported the matter to both the Northern Premier League and the Football Association, underlining the seriousness with which they view the hoax and its potential to undermine trust in an already tight-knit non-league community.

Wilcox, who took charge of Gainsborough in 2023, has rebuilt his reputation in the dugout after previous managerial spells at Scunthorpe United and York City. Under his guidance, Trinity reached the FA Cup first round last season and went one better in 2024-25, progressing to the second round.

As a player, Wilcox carved out a solid career with Northampton Town, Hull City, Doncaster Rovers, Preston North End and Scunthorpe. Now, with his integrity publicly defended and the governing bodies alerted, the focus at Gainsborough turns back to the real business: protecting their name off the pitch while chasing progress on it.