Thought it might be worth having its own thread for all the next manager rumours. Beyond the initial bookies favourites of Carlos Cuesta and Will Still, who’s both appear to be targeted by several clubs, the latest two names believed to be in talks with the club are Pascal Jansen formally of AZ Alkmaar and FC Nordsjaelland boss Johannes Hoff Thorup.
Re. Pascal Jansen, this from a piece about him in The Athletic: "Over almost three years, he has cemented the academy-to-first-team pathway: this is AZ’s sixth consecutive season with a squad average age of under 25, Jansen has given 30 players their senior debuts while aged 22 or younger, in the Eredivisie or Conference League, including seven of [the 2023 UEFA] Youth League-winning squad." That much at least sounds a good fit.
It has to be said that some AZ fans were happy to see him leave, looking at some of the comments on X
I dont know why, but I'm hoping for Carlos Cuesta. I know he is inexperienced, but someone young with maybe fresh ideas might be what we need.
Carlos still the bookies favourite. Carlos Cuesta 5/4 Johannes Hoff Thorup 2/1 Will Still 3/1 Pascal Jansen 6/1 Liam Rosenior 8/1
What is striking about that list is how relatively inexperienced they all are, except for Jansen, who also has a dismissal last January. Of course Farke and Wagner were both inexperienced when they came to the UK. Knapper himself is relatively inexperienced and I wonder whether that could also be a factor. Time will tell.
I put a fiver on Carlos at evens it's 10/1 now https://m.skybet.com/football/manager-specials/next-permanent-norwich-manager/33603067
From that the momentum seems to be with Johannes Hoff Thorup. Also interesting that Rosenior has moved from 8/1 to 4/1 ahead of Still who has dropped to 8/1.
If you were an ambitious, talented, foreign youngster, looking to advance your career by signing for a stepping-stone club, with one of the top European leagues as your ultimate objective (European, not EUR), what sort of draw would Liam Rosenior be? I'd be very surprised if he is anywhere near the top of Knapper's list. If we appointed him, the likely reaction would be "They weren't attractive enough to the Thorups, Stills and Jansens in the field".
Chris Reeve seems fairly in the know and has said that Will Still has visited the Lotus Training Centre and held talks as part of interview process
From that it would seem to be narrowing down to Thorup or Still as Rosenior's odds lengthen. Most of the press attention is focused on Still at the moment: https://therealefl.co.uk/2024/05/23...impressive-manager-open-to-championship-move/ This may be due to the copy and paste nature of the blogs or it could suggest that Still and Thorup really are the final contenders.
But he also says that visit was earlier in the week whereas Thorup may be getting the attention now. It's all a bit intricate, but spellbinding as well.
Still is also said to be on the running for the Sunderland job and is a better known name thanks to his time at Reims so it’s a more eye catching name for reporters to write about. I think I’d prefer Thorup but happy with either as long as we are informed on a project that we can get behind
Is Narcis Pelach still with the club? His name is not in the top 70 on one betting sight I looked at. I know he was brought in by Wagner and Knapper probably wants to bring in his own crew. But, not to even be listed in the odds surprises me. ps. I really liked Still's enthusiasm. That's all I can say about any of them.