So now we know the identity of the ‘angry man’ who will be the next occupant of Cellino’s hot seat. It’s been confirmed that our new head coach will be the former Brentford and Wigan Athletic manager Uwe Rösler.
OK, so he wasn’t the former Brentford boss I would have chosen, but his appointment means we can now be reasonably optimistic about the season to come, as the East German has had a successful career in management before the start of 2014/15.
In his playing days Rösler was once a popular figure at Manchester City, but in 2003 he was forced to retire when he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 35. By then he was at Norweigan club Lillestrom, and he took his coaching badges once he had made a full recovery from the disease, eventually taking over as Lillestrom boss in 2005.
After two fourth places in the league and two cup finals he left Lillestrom for successful spells at Viking and Danish club Molde. But he wanted to return to English football and in June 2011 he took over at Brentford. He went very close to taking the Griffin Park mob up to the ‘Championship’ in 2012/3, only to suffer an agonising defeat to Doncaster on the final day before missing out in the play-offs.
The following season Mark Warburton was able to build on his good work and take Brentford up, but by then Rösler had moved on to Wigan. He took over at the JJB in December 2013 after Owen Coyle departure, and took them up to fifth in the table and the FA Cup semi-final, but lost to QPR in the play-offs.
And it went pear-shaped at the start of the current season, with chairman Dave Whelan losing patience after only 13 games and sacking Rösler after a poor start. Quite bizarrely Whelan said "I still rate him as a very, very good manager”, but there had been rumours of discontent among the playing squad.
We’ll find out soon enough if he’s still a good manager, but he was sounding very upbeat when he was officially unveiled at a press conference today (which was wisely conducted by Adam Pearson, with Cellino nowhere in sight). And if he is feeling a little wary of working for our madcap President, he wasn’t letting on.
"I had one or two opportunities. But this one came available at very short notice and it can’t get bigger than this. It was a no-brainer. Life is a challenge and I am know what I am gettng myself in for and I have thrived on challenges and pressure all my life. I have been out of work and have used the last six months to educate myself and I was always keen to come back in the summer.”
Rösler will be allowed to bring in his own assistant manager and first-team coach, who are likely to be announced in the near future. This leaves the possibility that freshly-fired Brentford boss Mark Warburton could join his management team, having previously assisted Rösler at Griffin Park. And thankfully Rösler will at least have "an input” as to which players are signed by the club. This
Meanwhile, Adam Pearson said that Neil Redfearn has been offered the chance to resume his old role back in charge of the Academy. We all hope that he will go back to restart the excellent work he was doing in charge of our youth team, but after the way he has been treated by Cellino no one would blame Redders if he decided to continue his career elsewhere.