Image Credits: Imago Images
It has been a summer of managerial movement that has touched every level of the English football pyramid.
At the top, Anfield is being restructured around Andoni Iraola’s arrival.
At Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace are scrambling to replace the architect of their most decorated era.
And at Edgeley Park, a club that has spent the last six years writing one of the most compelling stories in the non-league-to-Football League rise has found the man they believe can carry that story into its next chapter.
Stockport County have made their appointment, and it is one that carries a thread of history with it.
The club were left needing a new head coach after Dave Challinor’s departure following a League One play-off final defeat to Bolton Wanderers.
Challinor had been transformative, two promotions, a remarkable rise from the National League to the third tier, and the fifth-longest tenure of any manager in the EFL before his exit.
Replacing him required someone who understood momentum, who had built something from scratch, and who could sustain the culture that Stockport’s ownership under Mark Stott has worked so hard to create.
The man they have chosen is Jimmy McNulty.
The 41-year-old arrives on a three-year deal, returning to Edgeley Park eighteen years after first pulling on a Stockport shirt as a player.
And for those who track the beginnings of football careers, his backstory has a familiar thread running through it.
McNulty was a Liverpool youth player, spending the 2001/02 season in the academy at Anfield before moving across Stanley Park to Everton, and eventually beginning his senior career at Wrexham after being released.
He never made it to the Liverpool first team.
But the grounding shaped a footballer who went on to make over 400 professional appearances, playing in the Championship with Barnsley and Scunthorpe, spending three seasons at Rochdale, and becoming one of the most respected defensive figures in the lower leagues during a career that spanned nearly two decades.
His transition into management has been even more impressive.
Taking over Rochdale initially as caretaker in 2022, McNulty then accepted the permanent role following their relegation from the EFL, inheriting a squad in disarray and a club without a roadmap.
What followed was a three-year rebuild that accumulated 106 points in the 2025/26 National League campaign alone, narrowly missed automatic promotion on the final day, then sealed the deal at Wembley in dramatic fashion, coming from 2-0 down against Boreham Wood to win on penalties.
“To go full circle and return all these years on as Head Coach at County feels incredible,” McNulty said upon his appointment.
“Some opportunities feel meant to be.”
“I have really fond memories of the Wembley team and the Wembley experience.”
“That blend of familiarity and the amazing new opportunities in the next phase of this football club just feels perfect for me and I’m incredibly excited by that.”
“We celebrated so much during my time here as a player, because we played a brand of football that we were so proud of as players and we knew the fans loved, and we found a way to win whilst doing it.”
“That is the idea that I want to cultivate for our supporters again, and I’m very excited to meet them and begin to develop that idea together.”
Stockport believe this is one of them.
After everything McNulty has built from nothing, he might just prove them right.