Next Millwall manager:
Who is the favorite to take charge of Preston North End’s next opponents??
Preston North End’s Saturday opponents Millwall announced their shock decision to part ways with Gary Rowett last night..
The 49-year-old is the second longest-serving manager in the Championship and is just days away from becoming Lions manager for four
years.. He scored two eighth places twice, from 11th to ninth, so he was always in the top half..
As for his reason for leaving The Den, he said “it felt like it was time to say goodbye”, even though Deepdale was only a few days away..
Most clubs who part ways with their managers tend to do so before the international break to allow their replacement to settle in, but
Millwall did so just three days before their next match ..
Assistant manager Adam Barrett has taken over and is likely to oversee Saturday’s match.. He previously had a spell as caretaker at
Millwall in October 2019, overseeing three matches which included a win, a draw and a loss.. He will be supported by Paul Robinson, who
spent 14 years as a player at Millwall and has coaching experience as a defense coach at Portsmouth..
Preston are hoping there will be no new manager for Millwall, but there is currently a lot of speculation about who will take the job.. The
early favorite for the role is Kevin Muscat, who is said to have missed out on the Rangers job.. The 50-year-old is currently managing
Japanese side Yokohama F.Marinos and has good experience in England, having played for Crystal Palace, Wolves, Rangers and Millwall..
The runner-up in the race for the job was John Eustace, who was acrimoniously sacked as Birmingham City manager and replaced by
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney.. Mark Kennedy was the first of two managers to leave on Wednesday after leaving his role as
Lincoln City manager and is likely to return to management quickly..
Michael Beale, sacked from Rangers in September after an eight-month spell at Ibrox, is fourth favorite, followed by Nathan Jones, who
was released by Southampton during a miserable spell on the coast southern sea.. Interestingly, Chelsea Women’s manager Emma Hayes
is on the list, and is valued at 16/1 which is the same as Dean Smith, Ryan Mason and Stevenage boss Steve Evans..
READ MORE
Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe has confirmed that Ali McCann and Jack Whatmough are both set for a spell on the sidelines.
The latter was withdrawn from recent international duty, having picked up a calf issue in Preston’s penultimate match prior to the break.
McCann then played no part at Ipswich Town, where team mate Whatmough was forced off with a hamstring problem. PNE return to
action on Saturday – at home to Millwall – and have been handed a big boost on Ched Evans. But, McCann and Whatmough will
‘definitely’ play no part for the next few weeks.
“Ali is still going to be a little bit,” said Lowe. “Jack Whatmough is going to be a little while – hamstring. don’t know the timescale on them
just yet, but they are progressing well. Jack is already out on the grass and hopefully won’t be too long. But, he’s had a previous injury in
that hamstring and probably didn’t recover as well as he should’ve done on it. There’s nothing we can do about that; it has happened and
we’ve just got to make sure we get him back fully fit, as quick as we can.”
Andrew Hughes was another absentee in the two away defeats – the Welshman also encountering a calf issue. Lowe described the
defender as ‘touch and go’ for Saturday’s clash, but did not appear overly confident of the number 16 being involved.
“Hughesy is not far away but again, I don’t really want to risk him because I don’t want them being out long-term” said Lowe. “But,
Hughesy is on the grass, doing bits and we’ll see how he is today and tomorrow. So yeah, we’ll just keep monitoring him but Hughesy is the closest one; Ali and Jack will be a little bit longer.”
Lowe had been hoping to have both Evans and fellow long-term absentee Emil Riis back after the international break. The Dane suffered a
serious knee injury back at the start of January, but has been dealt another setback on his road to recovery. Riis has been taking part in
first team training and pushing for a return, but won’t be back anytime soon judging by Lowe’s latest update.
“Emil has had a bit of a setback, but we’ve got to get some more details on that, because we don’t want to rush him now that we’ve got
Ched,” said Lowe. “We were hoping to get the two of them back at the same time, but if one had come first I’d have taken either. We will
monitor Emil’s situation; he will go and see a specialist to get a second opinion on where he’s at. I don’t know how long he’s going to be
yet. We’ve got some meetings pencilled in and we’ll take it from there.
“I am not worried; it might be an extra three, four, five or six weeks maybe but it’ll be for the better. He’s been training well and saying he
feels great, but has just had a bit of swelling. Obviously, if there’s a bit of swelling then we know there’s something not right – so we’re
going to get that all looked at and dealt with. If you’d have told me I’d have Emil Riis and Ched Evans back before Christmas, I’d have bitten your hand off.”
On a more positive note, Jordan Storey is back from the illness which kept him out of the Leicester and Ipswich matches. And Liverpool
loan man Calvin Ramsay – who is yet to play for Preston after suffering a recurrence of a knee injury – is making encouraging progress.
North End hope to be back working with the Scot next week.
“Calvin is going to be with us from Monday,” said Lowe. “We will have to get him up to our speed, but he’s gone through all the protocols
he needed to at Liverpool. He’ll get up to speed with us in training and we’ll hopefully get him some minutes in a (reserve) game. But, he’s
fully fit now and will be back with us after the Millwall game.”
Leave a Reply