Danny Rohl reason for rejecting Rangers revealed - Is this a lasting impact of Sheffield Wednesday chaos? | OneFootball

Danny Rohl was recently linked with the vacant Rangers job

Danny Rohl has been heavily linked with the vacant manager role at Rangers over the past week.

The Scottish giants are famed for the great success they have enjoyed over the years, clinching 55 league titles, 34 Scottish Cups, 28 Scottish League Cups and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

Recent times haven’t been so kind to the Gers though, after the club entered liquidation in 2012 due to financial difficulties. This meant that they had to work their way back up from the third-tier of Scottish football, before arriving in a division that was being dominated by arch-rivals Celtic.

Steven Gerrard led Rangers to their 55th title in 2021, but the Ibrox outfit hasn’t been able to match Celtic since then. Former Southampton boss Russell Martin was selected as the man to take them forward this summer, but it became clear from very early on that the appointment wasn’t working out.

Remarkably, the Gers managed to record just a single league victory during his tenure, drawing five times and suffering a further defeat.

Major embarrassment came in qualification for the Champions League, where Club Brugge bested Martin’s side 9-1 over two legs.

A draw away at Falkirk proved to be one step too far for the higher-ups at Ibrox and Martin was subsequently relieved of his duties.

Naturally, for such a massive job, speculation began instantly over who his replacement may be.

Gerrard was linked with an emotional return, but after multiple talks with the club, he decided the time wasn’t right for him to manage Rangers again. Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna was another name murmured, but the Northern Irishman rubbished those claims personally.

Reportedly shortlisted alongside those bosses was Rohl, who has been out of work since leaving Sheffield Wednesday in the summer.

Why Sheffield Wednesday tenure may have prevented Danny Rohl from taking Rangers job

The German was another manager to hold a series of talks with Rangers, but has reportedly decided to step away from the opportunity.

This may seem strange at first, but it can be explained by his most recent managerial stint.

Rohl was appointed as Sheffield Wednesday manager in October 2023 and connected with the Hillsborough faithful immediately, due to the way that he transformed their team and saved them from what looked like a certain relegation.

The German managed to improve the Owls’ standing even further last term, achieving a 12th-place finish. However, that would be his final campaign in charge of the Steel City side, due to matters off the pitch.

Owner Dejphon Chansiri’s financial woes have been well-documented this year, with the Thai businessman failing to pay players on time for five of the last seven months.

This led to key operators such as Michael Smith and Josh Windass leaving for free and saw Wednesday placed under six different embargoes, limiting their transfer business to just the loan signings of Ethan Horvath and Harry Amass.

During all of this, Rohl’s poor relationship with Chansiri soured even further, and it became clear that the German couldn’t continue as the Owls’ manager, despite leading some training sessions in pre-season.

This experience could be a major factor in why the 36-year-old has decided to decline the Rangers opportunity, which came so soon after his time at Hillsborough.

Rohl had to watch on as he saw employees go without payment, players walk out on the club, and suffer a feeling of utter helplessness as it all unfolded.

Experiences like that take time to recover from and maybe the German hasn’t had enough space away from the game to fully commit himself to another club.

Rangers are currently in a harrowing position and despite their status as one of British football’s elite outfits, it may not be the correct job for Rohl to go into after his terrible experience with Wednesday.

The immediate pressure the Owls’ former boss would be under to perform could be too much for him to take at this moment in time, after spending so much of his last managerial stint dealing with matters off the pitch.

Danny Rohl can’t let too many opportunities pass him by

Rohl’s cautious approach over rushing back into management is understandable after his experience at Wednesday, due to the large number of issues he had to deal with, away from simply winning games.

However, Rohl can’t let too many good opportunities pass him by whilst recovering.

Although taking charge of Rangers does represent a unique challenge, succeeding in said role rewards managers with a place in history.

The German would surely back himself to do so, which means that, besides his experience at Hillsborough, it’s hard to see why he would step away from the job.