Gainsborough Trinity Condemns Impersonator Making False Transfer Offers
In the quieter corners of English football, where word of mouth still travels faster than any press release, Gainsborough Trinity have found themselves dealing with a very modern problem: an impersonator pretending to be their manager and trying to sign players.
The Northern Premier League Premier Division club have condemned an individual who has been approaching players with transfer and wage offers while falsely claiming to represent boss Russ Wilcox.
This is seventh-tier football, not the Premier League, but the impact is no less serious.
Club CEO Matt Boles said the person had contacted “a number of players” at various levels of the non-league pyramid, using Wilcox’s name to try to open talks. The club moved quickly once the pattern became clear.
Boles stressed he wanted it “categorically clear” that no such communication had come from Wilcox or anyone acting on behalf of Gainsborough Trinity.
“We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible,” he said on the club’s website. “Impersonating a football manager and making false representations to players is completely unacceptable and has the potential to cause unnecessary disruption and reputational damage to players, managers and clubs.”
The hoax only came to light because people inside the game trusted their instincts.
Managers and officials at other clubs, suspicious of the tone and method of the approaches, went straight to the source. They contacted Wilcox directly, asking if he had really been behind the messages that carried his name.
They were right to question it.
“Many have done so precisely because they know Russ, know the professional standards by which he conducts himself, and immediately recognised that this is not the manner in which he would approach or attempt to recruit a player,” Boles explained.
Once those calls started coming in, the picture sharpened. Someone, somewhere, was trying to trade off Wilcox’s reputation.
Boles then delivered a blunt message aimed squarely at the culprit.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “Stop impersonating our manager, stop wasting the time of players and clubs across the non-league game and, quite frankly, get a life.”
Gainsborough have reported the matter to both the Northern Premier League and the Football Association, underlining how seriously they are treating the situation. In a landscape where budgets are tight and trust is vital, the club are determined to protect their name and their manager’s.
Wilcox, appointed in 2023, has quietly rebuilt his standing at the Lincolnshire club after previous managerial spells at Scunthorpe United and York City. On the pitch, his side have made their mark in the FA Cup, reaching the second round in 2024-25 and the first round the season before.
His playing career, which took in Northampton Town, Hull City, Doncaster Rovers, Preston North End and Scunthorpe, earned him respect across the lower divisions. That reputation now sits at the heart of this story: the very professionalism people associate with Wilcox is what helped expose the fraud.
Non-league football relies on that kind of recognition and trust. The question now is whether the authorities can move quickly enough to ensure this remains an isolated stunt, rather than the start of a worrying trend in the game’s grassroots tiers.
