Gainsborough Call To Stop Russ Wilcox Impersonator

Non-league football has its fair share of odd stories, but this one's a new twist even by those standards. Gainsborough Trinity have gone public this week to confirm that an unidentified individual has been impersonating their manager, Russ Wilcox, and using his name to make approaches to players across the non-league pyramid.

The Northern Premier League Premier Division club say the imposter has contacted a number of players at different levels, in some cases making transfer and wage offers that were never authorised by Wilcox or the club. FA rules are clear that managers can't approach players directly - any interest has to go through proper club-to-club channels - which makes the impersonation even more of a problem than a simple case of mistaken identity.

"Get a life"

Gainsborough chief executive Matt Boles didn't hold back in the club's statement, stressing that the approaches "have not been made by Russ Wilcox, nor have they been made on behalf of Gainsborough Trinity Football Club," and condemning the individual responsible in strong terms. The club say they became aware of what was going on after managers and officials at other clubs started contacting Wilcox directly, suspecting the messages their players were receiving weren't really from him- largely, according to Boles, because those who know Wilcox recognised straight away that it wasn't how he operates.

FA and league now involved

Both the Northern Premier League and the Football Association have now been made aware of the situation, and Gainsborough have thanked the club officials who flagged it rather than simply ignoring it. Boles closed the statement with a message aimed squarely at whoever's behind it: enough is enough, stop wasting the time of players and clubs across the game, and - in his words - get a life.

Who is Russ Wilcox?

Wilcox has managed Gainsborough since 2023, having previously held roles at Scunthorpe United and York City, and the club currently sit just outside the play-off places in the seventh tier. Whoever's responsible for this remains unidentified for now, but with two footballing authorities involved, it's the kind of thing that tends not to stay that way for long.