Fresh twist emerges in Bristol Rovers search for a Matt Taylor replacement | OneFootball

The Gas may be closing in on an appointment.

German manager Michael Wimmer has been named by Bristol Live as the leading candidate to fill the current vacant head coach role at Bristol Rovers in a significant update in the search for Matt Taylor's replacement.

The fate of Taylor was sealed after his side's 2-0 loss to Birmingham City last weekend. The defeat - their third straight in League One - left them just outside the relegation zone after 19 games.

The mood has been low at the Memorial Stadium for a while anyway, with Taylor losing the full support of the fanbase, so the decision to sack him came as no surprise.

Attention then turned to who was going to be his successor; Rovers appear to have sounded out their preferred option.

Michael Wimmer: the leading candidate to become Bristol Rovers manager

According to Bristol Live, Wimmer has been earmarked as the club's leading choice to become their next manager. The 44-year-old was last in charge of Austria Wien in the Austrian Bundesliga, where he was in place for a year-and-a-half before departing just before the end of the 2023/24 season.

They finished seventh that season but have made a good turnaround in the current term and are currently sat second in the division on as many points as they had throughout the whole of the previous campaign.

When he was appointed by his last employers, they described him as a coach that is a keen developer of younger players and: "wants to play a type of football that is intense, courageous, dynamic and determined." That is in accordance with his extensive background of working as a youth team coach for 1. FC Nurnberg, where he was based for eight years.

The German has been involved in a fair bit of first-team coaching in his home country too, mostly as an assistant for FC Augsburg and Stuttgart.

David Horseman will take charge of Rovers on an interim basis for their match on Saturday against Wrexham. Given Wimmer's nationality, he will need a work permit if the club do try to bring him in. The Gas would like to have their new boss in place in time for the Christmas festivities so that they can take charge of the Boxing Day game against Exeter City, as per Bristol Live.

In terms of the level that he has previously worked at (the biggest leagues in Austria and Germany), Wimmer probably has a higher pedigree than most of the other candidates that Rovers could have gone for.

That said, that pedigree is all based on work done outside of the EFL. With the league position that the Gas are in, some supporters may feel that a steady pair of hands could be the more reliable option.

Time will tell whether they even go for him, but it wouldn't be an appointment that was exactly playing it safe.