Schumacher takes risky Stoke leap, Rosenior’s Hull shine ahead of Leeds’ must-win Ipswich rematch | OneFootball

SCHUMACHER AND STOKE BREAK PLYMOUTH HEARTS Plymouth have rightly been lauded for how they have successfully adapted to life back in the Championship. After Saturday’s 3-2 home win over Rotherham United, they are six points clear of the relegation zone.

But with things going *too* well, a spanner has been thrown into the works that may derail their season as Championship rivals Stoke City have lured manager Schumacher away.

The 39-year-old Liverpudlian had become an adopted son of Plymouth and after guiding them to the League One title last season, his hero’s status at Home Park was secured.

His reputation has enhanced this term as Plymouth – largely thanks to their stunning home form – are sitting comfortably away from the relegation zone. Rival clubs were already sniffing around Schumacher before this season and while an exit for a grander project was inevitable at some point, they would have hoped to keep him at least until the end of the season.

Sadly for them, that wasn’t to be and while his exit may provide the relegation strugglers with a glimmer of hope (yes, I’m clutching at straws as a Rotherham United fan), Plymouth are well-run behind the scenes and will have planned for Schumacher’s exit well in advance, so a suitable replacement will presumably arrive shortly. Portsmouth’s John Mousinho, perhaps?

As for Stoke and Schumacher, it is certainly a risk for the inexperienced manager to choose the stuttering Potters as his next destination. On course for their sixth consecutive bottom-half finish in the Championship, they were sleepwalking into a relegation battle under Alex Neil as pre-season optimism was soon quashed.

Just three points clear of the bottom three, Schumacher will have done well if he manages to steady the Stoke ship but it’s easy to see why he has decided this is the right move. It’s a club much closer to home and while Plymouth are a team on the up, the Potters’ higher budget makes their potential a whole lot higher.

Yet Stoke has become a broken club with endless board mistakes making it difficult to halt their decline, as managers with much better CVs than Schumacher have failed at the Bet365 Stadium since they fell from the Premier League. The departing Plymouth boss will be up against it but if he connects with the Potters supporters as he did with the Home Park faithful, he will give himself a better chance of succeeding than most of his predecessors.

Alex Neil and Steven Schumacher.

RESURGENT HULL COMMIT TO LIAM ROSENIOR While Ipswich Town’s Kieran McKenna is rightly many people’s runaway favourite to win this year’s Championship Manager of the Year award, Rosenior should not be too far behind him.

Rewarded with a new three-year contract earlier this week, Rosenior’s great work at Hull City is somewhat going under the radar, but this does not mean he’s less deserving of praise than his flourishing rivals.

After being thrown to the wolves – first as a coach before becoming interim manager – at Derby County, Rosenior has proven at Hull City that he benefitted hugely from working in the treacherous environment at Pride Park as he’s now earning plaudits as one of the best young coaches in the Football League.

Having seamlessly guided Hull City to Championship safety in 2022/23, Rosenior has the Yorkshire side mounting a surprising push for the play-offs as they sit sixth in the table after Saturday’s 3-0 hammering of Cardiff City.

The top four positions in the Championship (barring a dramatic decline from any of the sides) already appear to be pretty tied up. But as what feels like half of the division battle it out for the final two play-off positions, Hull City seem better placed than most to get over the line and if a finish inside the top six is secured, it would top off a meteoric rise under Rosenior, who is heading right to the top.

WILL LEEDS UNITED-IPSWICH II LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS? Six points separate fifth-placed West Brom from Leeds United and Southampton, so the two relegated Premier League sides appear to be the most likely to (if any do) get in the way of Ipswich/Leicester City and automatic promotion.

Leicester and Ipswich set a relentless pace at the start of this season and they have no sign of slowing down as they march towards the Premer League.

Ipswich have been sensational as they continue to perform above expectations with the help of McKenna-ball. They have only lost two league games this season, one of which came against promotion rivals Leeds United in a 4-3 thriller at Portman Road and the two sides meet again on Saturday at Elland Road.

After how good the first meeting between the sides was, the prospect of a rematch understandably has neutrals bursting with excitement. As proven by the dampest of squibs between Liverpool and Manchester United, highly-anticipated games can fail to live up to expectations, but given the attacking quality Ipswich and Leeds have at their disposal, surely there’s no way this match can be sh*t?

Daniel Farke will not be deterred if this game does not rank highly on the entertainment scale as they need a win by any means necessary. Should Ipswich get revenge and pick up all three points, Leeds United will be left to fight a losing battle in the race for automatic promotion with them 13 points adrift of second place.

However, a win for Leeds would pile the pressure on Ipswich, who have the small matter of a home game against table-toppers Leicester City on Boxing Day. Get strapped in ’cause this is going to be a belting few days of peak Championship drama.

ROHL ADDS SEASONING TO SH*T SHEFF WEDS SANDWICH Down at the bottom, it has looked for much of this season that Sheffield Wednesday would go down with a whimper, but inexperienced head coach Danny Rohl is working wonders in a desperate attempt to re-write their relegation script.

Arriving in October to replace Xisco Munoz, Rohl was tasked with putting out the Dejphon Chansiri-enforced fire at Sheff Weds as the South Yorkshire side endured a disastrous few months following last season’s League One play-off final triumph.

Having rid of Darren Moore in the summer and making some questionable signings, Chansiri was butting heads with Sheff Weds supporters on what felt like a daily basis. Far more experienced managers would crumble in this situation, but Rohl has taken it in his stride and has breathed life into the club’s season.

After failing to win any of their first 13 league games, Rohl’s side have four wins in their last nine matches and out of nowhere, they are only six points adrift of safety.

The quality of Sheff Weds’ squad still leaves much to be desired so signings are needed in January, but Rohl is at least giving them a fighting chance and that is more than their fans could have hoped for when he took over.

If he keeps them up, the former Bayern Munich coach can boot McKenna off the stage at the end-of-season awards ceremony, claim the Manager of the Year trophy as his own and no one could deny him after what would be an unthinkable achievement in his first role as a head coach.