Exclusive:Rangers-linked manager can 'restore belief' at Ibrox and is 'very much' in the frame to be next boss

The 36-year-old head coach is thought to be on the list of potential replacements for Russell Martin in the Rangers dugout after his success in turning around crisis club Sheffield Wednesday in recent years, with reports claiming that the German head coach held ‘positive’ discussions with chairman Andrew Cavenagh and vice-chairman Paraag Marathe in London last week.

With former manager Steven Gerrard ruling himself out of the role last week, Rohl has been named alongside Kevin Muscat as the two leading favourites for the Rangers manager job, and journalist Joe Crann, who covers Wednesday for sister publication The Star, believes he is more than capable of turning around the fortunes of the struggling Glasgow giants.

“He's definitely very much in the frame,” said Crann. “It is no surprise. He was in the mix before. Had Wednesday not had him under contract, and had [Sheffield Wednesday chairman] Chansiri not been Chansiri, there might have been a chance of something happening in the summer. It's the sort of job he'd fancy, he wants to get as high up as quickly as possible, and Rangers are a massive club.

“Because he is this young, upcoming, modern coach, he’s maybe been tarred with that brush. But he's not set in stone the way he plays. I had a chat with him before he took on the job, and I asked if he was a coach with a set game plan and a set style. He has his principles, his non-negotiables, but he's not going to say ‘we play from the back and make 50 passes before there's a goal’. He wants a lot of running, they've got to be fit to play for a Danny Rohl team, and high press. But he's not afraid of doing what needs to be done to make what he has at his disposal work.”

‘The guy has won seven titles’

Crann concedes that managing Rangers requires a different skillset to battling relegation with Sheffield Wednesday in the English second tier, but he believes one of the Germans’ key attributes will benefit Rangers’ struggling squad.

“The guy has won seven titles,” said Crann. “Yes, he hasn’t done it as a manager, but he has been part of very successful teams. There’s a natural balance with guys like Danny. He counts [Barcelona manager] Hansi Flick as one of his best friends and mentors. He’s worked with some really good people. When you’re a player and, say, you’re a striker, and he says ‘when I worked with Robert Lewandowski and this is how he did it’ - it’s little things like that which make a big difference when you are a team that is bereft of belief. He can instil the belief that they are better than what the results have shown.

“Without disrespecting anyone. I think he will find it easier to turn around a side like Rangers, with the players they have, and the quality at their disposal. They are not where they should be. When he took charge of Wednesday, they weren’t a fantastic side. Rangers is more needing tweaks, not wholesale changes, not baby out with the bathwater type of stuff.”

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