From Manhattan to the Mariners Michael Jolley’s backstory trumps those of most managers. Six months on from taking charge of Grimsby he is explaining how reading economics at Cambridge University paved the way for him to work as a corporate bond trader for six years, for HSBC and Toronto Dominion, in London and then New York. Coaching in League Two is a world away from Midtown’s bright lights and rows of dizzying skyscrapers.

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One day at his office, near the Empire State Building, however, was like no other: Tuesday, 11 September 2001. Jolley is quick to stress he was a couple of miles away from the terrorist attacks but the horrific events of that morning are something he will always remember.

“I saw the second tower fall, so that’s something that stays with you,” he says. “The first awareness was when the first plane hit the World Trade Center north tower. We were trying to find out what was going on and also trying to communicate with people that we knew worked in that building.

“Once the second plane struck we were much more aware of the developing situation. There was a lot of confusion after the first plane but much less after the second.

“Once events started to unfold, the fight or flight thing starts to kick in. You start to think I’m a risk here, potentially. I walked north to try and get as far away as I possibly could. I got home to my apartment, locked the door and I could hear the F15 fighter jets circling above our heads.”

Jolley watched television for much of the next 24 hours, trying to get to grips with what had happened, before returning to work on the Thursday. “In that industry everybody knew several people that had passed away so it was a case of consoling and trying to give as much love and support to the people who needed it.

“There was one lad that I had become quite friendly with. I’d been in New York for just over a year and we got on quite well, we’d been out for dinner and he helped me settle. I was a trader and he was a broker, so I had spoken to him many times that morning. He was the main focus of my thoughts throughout and, sadly, he was lost.”

Listening to Jolley speak is sobering and he says such events provide perspective if he is ever having a bad day. Bonds were traded with millions and millions at stake, so there was naturally a pressure. “A bit like sport, you would go on streaks of good times and bad times,” he says. “You are trying to manage that risk appropriately and sensibly, that’s really the job of a trader; you’re a risk manager. You are always weighing up risk on the basis of the risk and reward, so you have to keep a level head about the numbers because sometimes they are telephone numbers involved.”

Jolley laughs at comparisons with the Wolf of Wall Street and says that, while working in the financial industry in New York was bucket-list stuff, he did not find the banking landscape totally fulfilling and returned to football, coaching at Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, before working with Scotland Universities, when his team were beaten 1-0 by England Universities, managed by Graham Potter.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A pre-Season friendly at Blundell Park in July. Photograph: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

It was Potter that Jolley – who counts Sean Dyche as his mentor having worked alongside him more recently as Burnley’s under-23s coach – leaned on before taking his first management job at AFC Eskilstuna in Sweden, where the former, now at Swansea, worked wonders with Östersund.

“When I got the job offer, he was the first person I called and he gave some good, balanced advice on the club. We spoke fairly regularly when I was over there as well. I don’t think I’d be sat here as the Grimsby manager, had I not had that experience in Sweden.

“The team started the season really badly; they got four points from 12 matches in a 30-game season. It was an uphill battle to survive. I went in with my eyes open that it was going to be a big, big challenge. We had notable victories against Gothenburg and Malmo but in the end we were not able to keep the team up.”

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Jolley is no longer trading and the only numbers that concern him these days are staring back at him in the league table. Grimsby, who host Oldham on Saturday, have won one of their first seven matches but he is adamant they will stick to the plan. When he replaced Russell Slade in March, the club statement referred to him as a “move away from the classic managerial merry-go-round” given his CV. Does Jolley agree? “It’s difficult for me to pass judgment on what kind of appointment I am. That’s for other people to say. History will decide how successful this is for Grimsby and for me. Both parties are working hard to try and make it a success and that’s all we can do.”

Talking points

• The man who replaced Jolley as Under-23s coach at Burnley, Michael Duff, has taken his first management job at Cheltenham, where he played for eight years. “I was settled, working at a Premier League club, but I feel that the time is right now,” the 40-year-old said.

• A doff of the cap to Newport County and Mike Flynn, who has won 28 of his 65 league games as manager since taking over in March 2017. The Exiles had won 28 of their previous 113 league games before that. Tyreeq Bakinson, on loan from Bristol City, has been influential in their good start, with Newport off the summit on goal difference alone.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tyreeq Bakinson, on loan from Bristol City, has played a key role in Newport’s impressive start to the League Two season. Photograph: Huw Evans/Rex/Shutterstock

• Leeds United have hardly had to use Patrick Bamford but how will they cope without him for the next four months? Marcelo Bielsa has largely used the 25-year-old off the bench owing to Kemar Roofe’s form but a knee injury, sustained in an under-23s match, will sideline him. Tyler Roberts, capped by Wales last week, is among the striking options.

• Will things get worse before they get better at Oxford United? They have little to show for a busy summer when they recruited more than 10 players, including Jamie Mackie and Ricky Holmes. Second-bottom of League One, they have four points from 21 and play Manchester City in the EFL Cup in a couple of weeks, though Wycombe and Walsall are next up.