Portsmouth hero could be next Sheffield Wednesday manager amid Rohl exit latest
Portsmouth’s Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday are facing a hugely troubling period behind the scenes.
The Owls are once again finding themselves hugely frustrated with their owner Dejphon Chansiri over his mismanagement of the club.
The South Yorkshire outfit flirted with the Championship play-offs at times last season, but there is a genuine possibility they could find themselves in a relegation battle last term, after they were recently placed under a transfer embargo for the next three windows.
Danny Rohl’s future at the club has been up in the air for several months, but it now seems as though it could be coming to a head imminently.
Gary O’Neil is in the running to be the next Wednesday boss
Pompey have been dealt scares in recent weeks by the fact that John Mousinho has been linked with several other Championship jobs.
With Rohl continually tipped to leave Wednesday over the last few months, many would have expected Mousinho to have been touted as a potential candidate to replace the young German, but thankfully for the Fratton Park faithful, that doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment.
Instead, former Pompey hero Gary O’Neil is thought to be one of the leading candidates to take over if Rohl does leave ahead of the upcoming campaign.
The 42-year-old is currently the third-favourite, and has odds of 8/1 to potentially take over at Hillsborough, according to Oddschecker (29 June).
The only two men with shorter odds than O’Neil at present are Rohl’s assistant Henrik Pedersen, and former Swansea chief Luke Williams.
The Championship relegation battle will be wide open
Mousinho did an excellent job to steer Pompey away from trouble at the back end of last season, but his task may get harder still this season.
The second tier’s relegation battle is expected to be as open as ever, especially because the newly-promoted duo of Birmingham City and Wrexham are not anticipated to be in any danger at all.
That leaves their fellow promotees Charlton, and then sides like Hull and Preston who only narrowly survived, as obvious relegation candidates.
However, Wednesday could easily find themselves dragged into the fight if their off-pitch issues continue, and even the likes of Mousinho’s charges will know they will have to strengthen if they are to pull away up the table.
The Championship looks set for another typically chaotic campaign this term, and Portsmouth will be desperate to ensure their safety is secured with ample breathing room.
Sign up for the Pompey News WhatsApp channel and turn on notifications to have all the latest, breaking Portsmouth news sent straight to your phone.