Michael Jolley

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…

AFC Eskilstuna

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 ever 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.

Grimsby Town

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. The final ten games of the season yielded Grimsby 15 points (four wins and…

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.

Family

Jolley has been married to Lizzie since 2013. He auctioned off the Manager of the Month award he received in December 2018 to raise funds for Grimsby's Fishermen's Mission, one of a number of community initiatives he undertook during his time in the role.

2009 incident

In 2009, Jolley was involved in an incident in Scotland that led to a court appearance after a 15-year-old girl misled him about her age when they met in a Stirling nightclub on a night out and later had a sexual encounter. It was established in court that the girl and her friends that accompanied her to the nightclub had lied to him about her true age, telling him that she was 19, and that he would not have had sexual relations with her had he known her true age. This was also the conclusion of all subsequent investigations into the incident with Jolley quoting directly from one of these in a 2010 statement. Media reports following the encounter said that the girl and her friends returned to his flat demanding money and that he was assaulted, prompting Jolley to ask a neighbour to contact the police. According to the same accounts, it was only much later that police later informed Jolley of the girl’s true age. Under Scottish law, offences of this type carry a wide sentencing range, with courts able to impose a custodial sentence of up to 14 years or non-custodial sentences depending on the circumstances of the offence and the offender. Jolley received the minimum available sentence…