3 Kim Hellberg alternatives Swansea City must chase ASAP after shock Middlesbrough twist | OneFootball

With the news that Kim Hellberg is set to join Middlesbrough rather than them, here are three alternatives that Swansea City could target instead.

With the shock news that Kim Hellberg is set to join Middlesbrough rather than head for South Wales, here are three viable alternatives that Swansea City could pursue as they continue their search for a new manager.

It was hardly the news that Swansea City fans wanted to wake up to on a Monday morning.

Having believed that they'd managed to persuade the Hammarby head coach Kim Hellberg to join their club, Swedish news outlets have now reported that the Swans have been gazumped by Middlesbrough and that Hellberg is now set to be named as their new manager as a replacement for Rob Edwards, who left Boro for Wolves earlier this month.

All of this leaves Swansea in something of a bind. The international break was supposed to be an opportunity for a little space to bring in a replacement for the sacked Alan Sheehan and give him the time to familiarise themselves with their new squad, ahead of their return to action at Bristol City on Saturday lunchtime. Instead, it's back to the drawing board with just five days to go, so with all of that in mind, here are three viable replacements that the Swans could target this week.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

The obvious point to make about the former Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is that Cardiff connection. Solskjaer was appointed as the manager of Swansea's bitter rivals in January 2014, though he wasn't able to keep them in the Premier League and left the club that September following a poor start to the following season.

That said, though, there is much to recommend him. His record elsewhere has been pretty good. He won the Norwegian league two years in a row prior to going to Cardiff, and his time as the Manchester United manager saw them finish as runners-up in both the Premier League and Europa League. His last position, in Turkey with Besiktas, ended in September after he was unable to get them into the group stage Europa Conference League.

Moreover, Solskjaer is available and, as he recently explained to the podcast The Overlap, would be open to managing in the Championship. Solskjaer has always presented himself well, while that brief stint at The Cardiff City Stadium came more than a decade ago. He could make a good fit for a club seeking to find its feet in the Championship following a disappointing start to the season.

Brendan Rodgers

They say that "you can't go home again", but the reappointment of Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City would certainly be the sentimentalist's choice as their new manager. Rodgers' previous spell with the club was relatively brief, lasting only from 2010 to 2012, but it left a mark.

His first season with the club ended with them winning the Championship play-offs and returning the club to the top-flight for the first time since 1982-83, and his second saw them finish 11th in the Premier League. His time with the club was curtailed early when Liverpool were persuaded to lure him away in the summer of 2012, but the platform that he built ushered in the most successful period in the Swans' history, with seven uninterrupted years of Premier League football and a League Cup win in 2013. Rodgers, meanwhile, went on to lift the FA Cup with Leicester City in 2021.

Rodgers shocked Scottish football earlier this season by quitting as the manager of Celtic, and tempting him to return to the Championship may be a tall order, given the success he's enjoyed since, but a return to the Swansea.com Stadium would surely be a popular choice with the club's supporters.

Michael Carrick

It says something for the esteem in which Michael Carrick continues to be held that his name now seems to be linked with just about every managerial position that becomes available. Carrick has been out of work since getting sacked by Middlesbrough at the end of last season after they ended last season in 10th place in the Championship after a tail-off which saw them fall from the play-offs to a mid-table finish.

But it's easy to be blinded by recency, and Carrick took Boro to fourth place and the play-offs in his first season in charge at The Riverside Stadium. With three seasons managing in the Championship already under his belt, he certainly knows this division and a move to Swansea would bring a degree of experience at this level which isn't necessarily easy to find at this time of the year.

Carrick's dismissal as the Middlesbrough manager was greeted with some degree of surprise, and he worked with the Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna in his early years as a coach under Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford. If he could repeat the success that McKenna had in his first couple of seasons at Portman Road, Swansea City could reap some significant benefits from appointing him.