Grimsby Town boss Paul Hurst unlikely to be going anywhere as Shrewsbury Town seek new manager

Paul Hurst’s former club Shrewsbury Town are on the look out for a new manager after the surprise exit of Steve Cotterill with the club announcing his departure on Tuesday. Speculation had been rife surrounding Cotterill’s future following the exit of chief executive Brian Caldwell and the announcement that the club would be creating a new board without consulting their manager.

Cotterill was clearly well-respected by the Salop fanbase for his efforts while at the club, initially keeping them up in League One from a desperate situation in the 20/21 campaign despite being hospitalised with Covid during the season. With an inferior budget to most of the division he kept the club up in the next two seasons as well and the current campaign saw Shrewsbury improve to a top half finish, their best league position in five years.

News of Cotterill’s departure was quickly followed by a cryptic statement from the chairman Roland Waverley, stating that “unpopular decisions had been made to to safeguard the very future of the club” and that the reasons behind those decisions “will become evident in the coming weeks and months”.

With the club’s precarious off-field situation in mind, some potential candidates for the role may be put off signing on, but Hurst’s name has been thrown into the mix by Shrewsbury fans considering his past exploits with the club. Hurst ended his first spell with Grimsby in 2016 with a move to the Salop who were bottom of League One at the time after 15 games, and he managed to guide them to safety in his first season before reaching the play-off finals in the next.

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Shrewsbury were not able to get over the line in the end, losing to Rotherham United at Wembley Stadium, and Hurst departed for Ipswich Town that summer. Hurst has been linked with a return to the club more than once since his 2018 departure, but eventually he ended up back at Blundell Park instead.

Considering the success Hurst has enjoyed with the Mariners since his return, his contract status and job security having signed a new deal in September last year, and the future project he could be apart of under Town’s forward-thinking owners, a move away seems highly unlikely.

The Grimsby boss was also linked to the vacant Port Vale and Blackpool roles earlier in the season, and he shot those down at first mention. Therefore, it seems it would take a much more attractive proposition to unsettle Hurst who has built something worth sticking around for at Town.