Former Bradford City manager Paul Jewell has emerged as the shock favourite to become the next manager of Championship side Blackburn Rovers. Earlier this week Paul Lambert revealed that he will step down from his role at the end of the season.
Jewell has been out of work since departing Premier League side West Bromwich Albion after just a week. The Telegraph understands that he left his job as assistant manager ‘not by mutual consent’ according to the ex-Derby boss.
The 51-year-old however hasn’t held an outright manager’s job since leaving Ipswich Town in October 2012.
His first managerial position was with Bradford City, where he had spent many years as a player. He guided the Bantams to the Premier League when gaining promotion from the old Frist Division in 1999.
Since then, most of his success came whilst at Wigan Athletic. They won the Second Division title in 2003, before taking the Latics into the Premier League two seasons later. Whilst in the top flight, they finished as runners-up to Manchester United in the League Cup in 2006.
However his managerial stints at Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County and Ipswich Town were less glamorous, and he has struggled to find work for the past few seasons. He does possess plenty of managerial experience, having taking charge of just under 600 games at the helm. Many Rovers fans will be concerned that ‘times have changed’ and that ‘the game has moved forward’ in recent times. Maybe that is why Jewell hasn’t had a managerial gig for a little while now.
Nevertheless, this is purely speculation at this stage, but at the time of writing he is the 15/8 favourite with Sky Bet to succeed Lambert. That has to be taken notice of and it is very much a case of watch this space regarding this story.
