Michael Jolley

Michael Jolley (born 30 March 1977) is an English professional football manager who was most recently in charge of Segunda Federación side Vélez CF.

Jolley is a Cambridge University graduate with an MA in economics and also has a postgraduate diploma PGDip/MSc in sports coaching from the University of Stirling.

Jolley holds a UEFA Pro Licence, the highest-level managerial qualification in association football in Europe.

Born in Sheffield, Jolley was a youth player with Barnsley between 1989 and 1993.

Between 1995 and 1998 Jolley attended Downing College, Cambridge, where he won three 'Blues' for representing Cambridge against Oxford University in the Varsity Football match.

During his time at Cambridge Jolley gained a bachelor's degree in economics, which was subsequently converted to a master's degree.

From 1999 to 2005, Jolley was a fixed-income trader, first in London, then in New York; he worked near the World Trade Center at the time of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.

In 2002, Jolley returned to England to be nearer to his family, while continuing his work in banking he also moved into football coaching when he joined Crystal Palace in 2004.

He started coaching in 2004.

He has previously held coaching positions at five professional clubs, including Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Lincoln City, Crewe Alexandra and Burnley.

Jolley's first coaching position was at Crystal Palace Academy, commencing in 2004, spending three years at Palace, during which time the academy produced players such as Victor Moses and John Bostock.

In 2007 Jolley left to take up a position with the academy of Nottingham Forest.

After just over one year with Forest, Jolley was appointed high-performance football coach in August 2008 at Stirling University Football Club.

Jolley coached and recruited players to the University's football scholarship programme.

Stirling also won the Queen's Park Shield in Jolley's first season.

Jolley also joined Falkirk as an academy coach.

Jolley was also appointed head coach of the Scotland Universities Team in 2008–09.

Jolley gained a Postgraduate Diploma PGDip/MSc in Sports Coaching during his time at the University of Stirling.

Jolley left his roles at Stirling and Falkirk in 2009.

In 2011 Jolley was one of 16 coaches to participate in the inaugural FA Elite Coaches Award.

He then had a brief role as first team coach at Lincoln City of the Conference Premier in 2012.

In November 2012, he joined League One side Crewe Alexandra as an Academy coach; his under-16s team included future Crewe professionals Charlie Kirk, Harry Pickering and Callum Ainley.

In July 2013 Michael Jolley was one of 16 coaches to complete the FA Elite Coaches Award.

Jolley was appointed senior professional development coach of the Burnley under-23 team on 7 July 2014.

Burnley would spend two of the next three seasons in the Premier League (see List of Burnley F.C. seasons).

His development squad won the Final Third Development League Cup final with a 2–1 victory over Stoke City U23's in the 2015–16 season.

Jolley spent three years in the role, during which time he played a role in the development of Cameron Dummigan, Tom Anderson, Luke Conlan, Luke Hendrie, Ntumba Massanka, Josh Ginnelly, Dan Agyei, Alex Whitmore, and Aiden O'Neill.

In 2015, Jolley gained the League Managers Association Diploma in Football Management, which covered influencing and negotiation, mental toughness and resilience, football finance, diversity, equality and inclusion, sport science and performance analytics and focused on leadership, personal development and wellbeing.

In 2016, Jolley gained his UEFA Pro Licence, from the English Football Association.

After three years as Burnley's U23 head coach, he was appointed manager of AFC Eskilstuna in Sweden, joining the last-placed Allsvenskan club in June 2017.

He left the club after it was relegated to Superettan.

Jolley became new manager of Swedish Premier Division, Allsvenskan side, AFC Eskilstuna on 13 June 2017, after being recommended by Sean Dyche.

The team was then winless with four points from the opening 12 matches, and bottom of the league table.

Under his coaching they took 15 points from the next 16 games, gaining their first Allsvenskan win on 15 July 2017, 2–1 against Kalmar FF in Jolley's first home game in charge, plus wins against IFK Göteborg and Malmö FF; the Malmö victory showcased Jolley's tactical thinking, receiving considerable analysis within the coaching community.

A 3-2 defeat by IF Elfsborg in their penultimate home game followed by a 1–1 draw away to Halmstads BK confirmed relegation to Superettan on 23 October 2017, and Jolley left AFC Eskilstuna on 9 January 2018 by mutual consent, unable to agree on the future direction of the club.

In March 2018, Jolley became manager at League Two club Grimsby Town before later briefly managing Barrow.

On 2 March 2018, Jolley was appointed as the new first team manager of EFL League Two side Grimsby Town on an undisclosed rolling contract.

His main task for the remainder of the season was to maintain their League Two status; he worked alongside Paul Wilkinson, who continued his previous role as assistant manager.

Jolley's first game in charge was a 1–1 draw at home to Port Vale on 10 March 2018.

Jolley secured Grimsby's League status on 28 April 2018 with a 2–1 victory at home to Notts County.