Sheffield Wednesday have to target 53-year-old to replace Danny Rohl if he leaves Hillsborough | OneFootball

Former Huddersfield Town and Norwich City manager David Wagner should be top of Sheffield Wednesday's list to replace Danny Rohl.

It had been an incredibly exciting first half of the season for Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, but their campaign has fallen apart in recent months.

After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, Wednesday emerged as surprise play-off contenders after a strong start to the season, but their promotion push has collapsed since the turn of the year, with off-field events contributing significantly to their downfall.

The first sign of problems at Hillsborough came when manager Danny Rohl was linked with a move to Southampton in December, and that sparked a breakdown in communication between him and owner Dejphon Chansiri, with the German unhappy at being denied a move to St Mary's.

Since the initial rumours about Rohl's future emerged just before Christmas, Wednesday have won just five of their last 19 league games, and in addition to their on-field issues, protests against Chansiri's ownership have gathered pace again in recent weeks after his late payment of March's player wages.

The Owls dropped down to 14th in the Championship table after suffering their fifth consecutive home defeat as they were beaten 1-0 by Oxford United at Hillsborough on Saturday, and as a season that promised so much continues to drift to an underwhelming conclusion, the summer cannot come quickly enough for the South Yorkshire outfit.

Danny Rohl's Sheffield Wednesday exit looks increasingly inevitable

Rohl may have remained at Hillsborough in December after Southampton were reportedly unwilling to pay his £4 million release clause, but in truth, it feels as though the 35-year-old's mind has been elsewhere for quite some time.

The public dispute between Rohl and Chansiri was resolved towards the end of the January transfer window, but the pair's relationship has likely been damaged beyond repair, and the Wednesday manager will surely have been unimpressed by the recent wages saga.

Thankfully for the Owls, they managed to avoid a three-window transfer ban after coming dangerously close to the maximum 30-day limit permitted for the late payment of player salaries and HMRC debt in a single year, but the episode again highlighted the chaotic nature of Chansiri's ownership, and it is not the kind of stable environment Rohl needs to showcase his managerial talent.

After parting company with Ivan Juric following their relegation from the Premier League, Rohl is believed to be Southampton's number one target to replace him, and as his compensation fee reduces to just £2 million for Championship clubs, there should be no such barriers to a move this time around.

The Saints are not the only club keen on Rohl, with fellow Championship-bound side Leicester City and German outfit RB Leipzig also said to be keeping tabs on him, so he will have no shortage of options to choose from as he weighs up his next destination.

Of course, with four games of the season remaining, Rohl will not directly confirm his seemingly imminent departure from Wednesday, but it seems that the club are planning for that eventuality, with reports last month claiming that Chansiri is keen for assistant manager Henrik Pedersen to step up to the top job in the summer.

However, Pedersen has a managerial win record of just 33.3% across spells in the Danish second division, German third tier and Norwegian top flight, making him a potentially risky appointment for the Owls, and there is one external candidate who should be top of Chansiri's wish list to replace Rohl.

David Wagner would be the perfect Danny Rohl replacement for Sheffield Wednesday

There would be some benefits to appointing Pedersen from a continuity perspective, but it would be far too much of a gamble for Wednesday, particularly given the current uncertainty surrounding the club, and former Huddersfield Town and Norwich City manager David Wagner would be a much safer choice.

After a spell in charge of the Borussia Dortmund reserve team, Wagner took his first steps into senior management with Huddersfield in November 2015.

Wagner kept the Terriers in the Championship in his first season as they recorded a 19th-placed finish, and, despite being tipped to struggle again the following year, the German incredibly led the club to promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history after a penalty shootout victory over Reading in the play-off final at Wembley.

If that achievement was not impressive enough, Wagner then defied the odds once again as he guided Town to survival in the top flight in the 2017-18 campaign, but their second season in the division proved to be much more challenging, and the 53-year-old resigned in January 2019 with his side sitting bottom of the table.

Wagner then had mixed stints with Schalke in Germany and Young Boys in Switzerland before returning to English football with Norwich in January 2023, and he led the Canaries to a sixth-placed finish in the Championship last season.

It is fair to say that Wagner never fully won over the Carrow Road faithful, and he was sacked after a 4-0 play-off semi-final defeat against Leeds United, but given the inconsistent season the Norfolk side have experienced this campaign under his successor, Johannes Hoff Thorup, they may wish they had not treated him so harshly.

Wagner's style of play may not always be easy on the eye, and Norwich supporters felt that he relied upon individual quality to get results, but there is no doubting his impressive track record at Championship level, and as he showed at Huddersfield, he is able to overachieve on a limited budget, which could make him perfect for Wednesday given Chansiri's reluctance to spend.

Whether Wagner would be willing to take over at Hillsborough in the current circumstances remains to be seen, but he reportedly held talks with Plymouth Argyle in January after the sacking of Wayne Rooney, suggesting that he could be open to accepting a job further down the second tier.

Owls supporters know all too well what Wagner is capable of after the play-off heartbreak his Huddersfield side inflicted on them in 2017, and while any manager will be seen as a downgrade on Rohl, he could be the ideal candidate to ease the transition and take the club forward.