Fiery Red Heads: Five ginger managers Paul Scholes can learn something from

Scholesy's taken the reigns at Oldham, so we’ve looked at some other coaches of a reddish hue from whom he can take inspiration...

Paul Scholes takes his first step into football management having been officially unveiled as the new boss of Oldham Athletic.

Having been handed the reigns at his boyhood club, Scholes follows in the footsteps of his favourite ever player, striker Frankie Bunn, who was sacked last December after just six months in the job.

The ink has only just dried on the contract but already reporters are asking if the “Ginger Prince” will bring fire and desire into the job because that’s all people with ginger bonnets ever do apparently.

Scholes then may want to have a look at these five fiery ginger whingers and perhaps take a leaf out of their book (or not) as he embarks on his new adventure.

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Neil Lennon

Where else could we start than with the fieriest of the fiery, Neil Francis Lennon.

The former Northern Ireland midfielder is the marmite of football, but one thing is for certain, love him or hate him, he isn’t taking any s**t from anyone. Lennon is back on the dole having left Hibernian only a couple of weeks ago by “mutual consent,” after rumours surfaced that he’d offered the entire squad out after a less than impressive morning at the training ground.

The club quickly quashed these stories, so expect to hear his dulcet tones on a sports radio station (or Irish TV station) in your area very soon.

It’s also highly unlikely that Scholes would ever dream of challenging any of his new charges to a duel at dawn on the heath, having played alongside unpredictable characters such as Roy Keane and Eric Cantona.

Gordon Strachan

Similar in stature to Scholes, Gordon Strachan is never short of wisecracks and a career on the after-dinner circuit surely beckons once his managerial career is over.

At 61 years of age and having been out of work since giving up the Scotland job in 2017, many would say it is over, but Strachan (just like Scholes) has worked under the great Sir Alex Ferguson and won three Scottish League titles with Celtic in a four year spell in charge of The Hoops.

The major difference between the two ex-Manchester United midfielders, however, is that Strachan despised Fergie whereas Scholes looked upon him as a father figure.

Sir Alex has probably already been on the blower to his former pupil begging him to take Phil Jones on-loan for the rest of the season.

Alex McLeish

There are more Fergie connections here with the man who succeeded Strachan as Scotland boss for the second time.

Alex McLeish won three league titles with Ferguson at Aberdeen and the European Cup Winners Cup, but many questioned his sanity when he took charge of his country again last year; 11 years on from his first forgettable spell.

He also put his very existence on the line in 2011 when he left Birmingham City to join bitter rivals Aston Villa in a move that even Neil Lennon would have considered bonkers.

Scholes had more skill in his left testicle than McLeish had in his entire body, but when it came to passion and courage, “Big Eck” was up there with the best of them.

Sean Dyche

The thinking woman’s Burt Reynolds, Dyche’s gruff vocal chords have become a staple of Saturday (or Sunday) night TV on Match of the Day.

That he’s just down the road from Scholes at Burnley makes him his go-to guy for advice on how to succeed in football management on a shoestring budget. A no-nonsense defender in his playing days, Dyche has been unable to converse properly since taking over at Watford in 2011 when he discovered his voice would stop working after 90 minutes shouting relentless instructions to his players.

Despite his addiction to throat lozenges, Dyche is always in the frame whenever a Premier League hot-seat becomes vacant without ever getting to the interview stage, so expect rumours linking him to Brighton, Fulham and of course, Everton, to be spread all over the back pages in the coming weeks.

David Moyes

If there was ever an event that could have put Scholes off management for life, then it would surely be David Moyes’s time in the Old Trafford hot-seat.

Flaming ginger hair during his time at Everton, Moyes virtually went grey overnight during a disastrous time at the Theatre of Dreams. Scholes was actually part of the coaching staff when Fergie’s best mate rocked up in 2013, but the “Chosen One” set the tone for his time in M16 when he paid his former club 30 million quid for Marouane Fellaini – when fans believed he was going all out to land Gareth Bale.

Since his departure from United, Moyes has had unsuccessful spells in charge of Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham, so Scholesey beware; just because you have Fergie’s name as a reference on your CV, it doesn’t give you the divine right to be a successful manager.

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