Posh's next manager - my top 5 picks
Peterborough United are looking for a manager again. It feels a little like Groundhog Day.
Posh sit 23rd in League One with five points from seven games after Luke Williams’ departure, but there are still 39 league matches left. This is bad. It is not yet desperate. The situation isn’t massively different to the one Williams walked into last October. Posh were struggling, confidence was low, but there was still more than enough season left for a coach to actually coach.
Williams wasn’t some enormous gamble either. He had managed Swindon, won promotion with Notts County and managed in the Championship with Swansea. He was highly rated, available only because his stock had fallen, wanted to play attacking football and had experience improving players. It looked a sensible appointment. It just didn’t work.
The answer shouldn’t be to panic and find the closest available firefighter. Posh have acted early enough to appoint someone for more than the next ten games.
The brief hasn’t really changed. They need a manager who can improve young players. They need someone who wants to play attacking football. And, perhaps most importantly, they need somebody who can work with Darragh MacAnthony and the recruitment model.
I’d add a little more after Williams: adaptability and out-of-possession work.
Posh cannot afford another situation where the plan only works if every piece is perfect. Or someone who won’t change if the plan isn’t working. The next manager needs to look at what is actually here and find a way to make it work. They also need to find a way to control and win matches when they lose the ball.
I've picked five who caught my eye. I've ruled out some names that have been passed around, such as Dave Challinor, Robbie Savage and Michael Duff as they are either unrealistic or a bad fit for Posh. Here are those that I think are realistic.
Karl Robinson – the experienced option
He has managed more EFL games than the other four options combined at 697. MK Dons, Charlton, Oxford and Salford give you a pretty enormous body of evidence.
The principles have remained pretty consistent. Robinson wants the ball, likes technical midfielders, gives attacking players freedom and wants his teams on the front foot. His better sides have scored a lot of goals, while his Oxford years also showed a willingness to change shape for opponents rather than simply worship the same 4-3-3 system.
He has also consistently trusted younger players. At Oxford he talked openly about building a development structure around players such as Rob Dickie, Cameron Brannagan & Dele Alli at MK as some examples.
More recently, Salford finished eighth and then fourth in his two full League Two seasons before losing last season’s play-off final. He was surprisingly sacked afterwards and is currently available. He interestingly played a very direct style in his last season/half season with Salford, leaning into more physical and direct players.
There are flaws. His teams can become open; possession can become possession for possession’s sake, especially when the attacking quality isn’t there. He has a slight touch of Fergie, in that he really properly thrives when he has good technical players available to him.
But Posh wouldn’t be guessing whether Robinson can handle a senior dressing room, a bad run, a January window or League One football. If the club wants experience without suddenly appointing someone whose main instruction is to launch it into the channels, he’s the obvious choice.
Robinson also passes one test plenty of Posh managers eventually fail: he already knows Darragh. The pair have had a good football relationship for years, with Robinson publicly praising Posh’s recruitment model and regularly speaking to Darragh about players over the years.
Matt Bloomfield – the best fit
The more I’ve looked at Matt Bloomfield, the more I like the fit.
Bloomfield has actually explained his coaching methodology in unusual detail (which you can read here) and plenty of it sounds like what I’d want Posh to become. He describes his football as “fast, convincing”, specifically rejecting possession for possession’s sake. The idea is to understand why the ball is being moved and what the team is trying to create. His players are taught what he calls “formation consequences”: recognise how the opposition’s shape has changed, understand where the weakness now is, and alter the press accordingly.
His build-up is structured. Higher up, there is more freedom. He wants pace out wide, attacking players who can win one-v-ones, and a press organised around what the opponent is actually doing rather than players simply sprinting towards whichever centre-back has the ball.
That sounds particularly attractive after watching Posh spend too much of the Williams era moving the ball safely without doing enough damage with it.
Bloomfield isn’t obsessed with winning the possession count. If the dangerous pass is available, play it.
He also has League One experience. His Wycombe side became one of the best teams in the division before Luton took him in January 2025. Since then, the CV has become messier.
He couldn’t save Luton from Championship relegation, although there was a substantial improvement late in the season. He then struggled after rebuilding them in League One and was sacked. Though he’s not the only one to struggle with Luton. Oxford subsequently appointed him while 23rd in the Championship; they improved, taking 25 points from his 21 league games, but were still relegated and surprisingly moved him on in June.
He’s similar in that his stock might be low enough that an offer from Posh would tempt him.
But if Posh are looking for someone who fits the footballing brief, has developed young players, understands League One and has already experienced enough adversity not to be learning everything on the job, Bloomfield makes a lot of sense.
Of the realistic candidates I’ve looked at, he is probably the closest fit.
Mehmet Ali – the big swing
Then we get into the less conventional appointments. A quick word on less conventional appointments. We may think we need experience right now, and I understand that. But on average, first-time hires tend to work out just as often as experienced hires. It’s all about the right person, not how many games they have under their belt.
Mehmet Ali is currently an assistant first-team coach at Brentford. Before that, he spent three years running Arsenal’s U21s, having previously managed Reading’s U23s and spent years coaching through Tottenham’s academy. I also have it on good authority that Posh have looked at a Brentford coach in the recent past, and think this might be the man.
That development experience is obviously interesting for Posh.
Ali worked with a generation at Arsenal containing Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, while his U21 sides were generally technical, aggressive without the ball and comfortable playing through midfield. Darren Ferguson described Ali’s Arsenal side before their EFL Trophy meeting with Posh in 2021 as technically very good, quick and aggressive out of possession.
His first Arsenal U21 season also included wins over senior Cambridge and Northampton sides in the EFL Trophy, so I like him already.
The problem is obvious. He has never managed a senior men’s team.
Academy football and League One are not the same sport every week. Developing Nwaneri is one thing; going to Stevenage in February, dealing with having to win the second ball for 90 minutes and then facing an unhappy 29-year-old you’ve left out of the team is another (not that we have many of those).
Ali would be a proper Head Coach appointment. Maybe exactly the sort of coach who would be happy to be left out of decision-making and ‘being a head coach by consortium’.
Ryan Garry – the development coach
Ryan Garry sits somewhere between Ali and Bloomfield.
He spent eight years coaching in Arsenal’s academy, then became an England age-group head coach, taking an U17 side containing Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri to the World Cup. He moved into senior club football with Lommel in Belgium as the assistant manager, and is now on Norwich’s staff. Norwich isn’t too far from Peterborough (at least not as far as Newport). So relocation is less of an issue.
His own description of football is encouraging.
Garry grew up in Wenger’s Arsenal environment and wants possession-based, attacking football, but his England experience also pushed him towards adaptability. His coaching background is heavily focused on developing the individual, understanding what players actually need, and giving them enough tactical knowledge to solve problems themselves.
He also has more experience being the actual head coach than Ali. There is, however, one massive asterisk. When Steve Bould left Lommel in January 2025, Garry took caretaker charge for seven matches. They drew one and lost six.
What did he get wrong? What would he change? Did that seven-game run make him a better potential manager than someone whose first proper crisis is still waiting for them?
There is a lot about Garry that fits Posh. There is also the question around Norwich’s current form, lots of goals scored, at least, but very wide open at the back.
Simon Rusk – overlooked
Simon Rusk originally appeared on my longer list because he is Peterborough-born and came through the Posh youth system.
Having actually looked at him, there’s a proper CV. Rusk spent close to a decade coaching at Brighton, progressing from the U18s to six years running their U23s and twice working with Chris Hughton’s first team. His development record includes players such as Ben White, Solly March and Steven Alzate. He then left for his first senior management job at Stockport.
Rusk managed 40 games at Stockport at 1.73 points per game, taking them into the National League play-offs before being sacked the following October with County tenth after 12 games. Dave Challinor replacing him and subsequently doing an excellent job probably hasn’t helped how the spell is remembered. However, at Stockport there was some criticism for passing with no purpose, or possession for the sake of it. You imagine he’s learned a fair bit since 2021.
Since then he has been an England U19 head coach, worked at Nottingham Forest and Southampton, managed Southampton U21s and twice taken interim charge of the Saints first team in the Premier League. He left Southampton when the staff changed in 2025 and is currently available.
At Brighton, Rusk talked about academy sides sharing first-team principles without blindly copying the same formation. At Southampton, dumped into an already-relegated Premier League side, he was pragmatic enough to prioritise confidence and organisation rather than announcing that his “identity” mattered more than the players in front of him.
His connection to Posh might give him some credit in the bank as well. He also comes across as an interesting guy and speaks well, and is interestingly quite involved in boxing, having been part of Ryan Garner’s team for his world title fight in June from a sports psychology perspective.
Conclusion
I probably lean towards Bloomfield because of where Posh are right now. Not because another younger or less experienced coach would automatically be reckless, and certainly not because Williams was some wild gamble. He just fits what we need right now. I’d also totally understand a move for Robinson. If we were to gamble? I’m very bought in on Rusk from what I have seen and heard in interviews, which we now know does matter.
Posh made a sensible appointment that failed. The lesson should be to interrogate the next fit for tactical rigidity and OOP style with more rigour. Not abandon what the club is supposed to be good at. There are still 39 games left. The next manager has time to work with these players, improve them, and build something.
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