Gainsborough Trinity Condemns Impersonator Making Bogus Transfer Offers
Gainsborough Trinity have condemned a serial impersonator who has been approaching players across non-league football while falsely claiming to be the club’s manager.
The Northern Premier League Premier Division side, in the seventh tier of English football, say an individual has contacted “a number of players” at different levels of the non-league pyramid, making transfer and wage offers in the name of boss Russ Wilcox.
Club CEO Matt Boles moved quickly to distance Trinity and Wilcox from the approaches, stressing that none of it has come from the dugout at the Northolme.
He said he wanted to make it “categorically clear” that any such communication over potential deals had not been sent by Wilcox or authorised by the club.
On the club’s website, Boles did not hold back.
“We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible,” he said. “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 scam came to light when managers and officials at other clubs began contacting Wilcox directly, suspicious about the tone and content of the messages they were seeing.
According to Boles, that network of non-league contacts helped expose the hoax.
“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,” he said.
Once the pattern became clear, Boles issued a blunt warning to the person behind the stunt.
“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.”
Trinity, who reached the FA Cup second round in 2024-25 and made the first round proper last season under Wilcox, have formally notified both the Northern Premier League and the Football Association about the bogus approaches.
Wilcox took charge of Gainsborough in 2023, adding another chapter to a managerial career that has included spells at Scunthorpe United and York City.
Before moving into the technical area, he built a solid playing career as a defender and midfielder with Northampton Town, Hull City, Doncaster Rovers, Preston North End and Scunthorpe United.
Now, with the hoaxer exposed and the authorities informed, Gainsborough’s focus returns to the pitch — and to ensuring that in a tight-knit non-league world, the only offers players receive in Wilcox’s name are the genuine ones.
