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Coleman, Bell and Doolan sign new deals until 2024

Management trio extend contracts

17 September 2020

Club News

Coleman, Bell and Doolan sign new deals until 2024

Management trio extend contracts

17 September 2020

John Coleman, Jimmy Bell and John Doolan have all signed new four-year contracts at Accrington Stanley.

The trio signed new deals in 2018 until 2022 but owner Andy Holt has offered them new four-year deals this week which will keep them at the club until 2024.

Their deal in 2018 was the longest-ever signed at the club.

Andy Holt said: “In these times of uncertainty we want to make sure there is security and certainty at the club.

“It shows a level of commitment from both parties and, now the long term future in terms of the management is secure, we can get our heads down and get through Covid together and this delights me.

"As I have said all along, we can have no better management team for Accrington Stanley."

John Coleman said: “I don’t need contracts, I never had them in the past and I don’t need them now.

“It’s good for security, it’s a little bit of security for me, Jimmy and John and for the club.

“I have got no desire to leave and, as long as the club don’t want me to leave, that’s fine.”

Assistant manager Jimmy Bell said: “It means a lot to get a new contract as our hearts and souls are at the club and have been for a long while.

“The club is very stable now and it’s going forward so me, John and John are more than happy to be staying here longer and hopefully we can carry on building the way we have been the last couple of years.”

Coach John Doolan added: “I am really happy, I am really settled here and I have loved the club since day one, it’s been first class.

“I enjoy working with John and Jimmy and it’s a great club to be at.”

John Coleman and Jimmy Bell first came to Stanley in 1999, guiding them from the UniBond First Division into the Football League in 2006 – three promotions.

They left to move to Rochdale in January 2012 but it didn’t work out and they managed Southport and Sligo before returning to the Wham Stadium in September 2014.

Doolan joined the coaching staff in 2017 and the trio mastermined Stanley’s climb into League One in 2018, the first time they have played in the third tier of English football since 1960.


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