Latest news with #Thorup
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Augsburg part ways with head coach Jens Thorup
Augsburg have announced that they have parted ways with head coach Jens Thorup after the team had analysed their season. Following Thorup out of the door is sporting director Marinko Jurendic. Since replacing Enrico Maaßen as head coach in the 2023/24 season, Thorup has averaged 1.3 points per game and turned the Fuggerstadt into a strong defensive unit. This season, the club even came close to fighting for a European spot, but ended the season on a five-game winless run and finished 12th, with it viewed as their third-best season ever. Advertisement However, despite the solid defensive aspect of their season, it is seen that this is not good enough, and there is a belief within the club that more could have been done, reports kicker. Augsburg now want to take the next step as a club and wants to shake things up with their next coaching hire. Sky Germany reports that Sandro Wagner is Augsburg's preferred candidate to replace Thorup. The former striker is said to have already agreed terms with a Bundesliga side over becoming their head coach in the summer. Wagner will be available in June after the conclusion of the Nations League finals. GGFN | Jack Meenan
BBC News
30-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'I would have done some things differently'
Former Norwich City boss Johannes Hoff Thorup says he would have done things differently had he known the target was to finish in the Championship play-off Dane was relieved of his duties by the Canaries last week following a run of six defeats from eight Championship games and only one was appointed in May 2024 and as recently as February, with the team 10th and four points outside the top six, sporting director Ben Knapper admitted the Canaries were where he expected them to signed a number of young players with the aim of developing them, Thorup said that influenced the way he managed the team."Had the communication from the start been that we should reach the top six and be one of the play-off clubs, then we would probably have made some other decisions along the way," Thorup told Danish sports magazine Tipsbladet., external"I will always say we didn't get enough time. We have obviously worked with a long-term perspective, and we also knew that the first season would be with bumps in the road. Therefore, we also made some decisions based on the fact that it was with a more long-term view in mind."The ex-FC Nordsjaelland coach admits had he thought results were the overriding priority he would have made different decisions."We wouldn't necessarily have played with the youngest team in Norwich for generations, as we did in one of the games (against Oxford), where we had an average age of around 23-and-a-half years," he added."We would probably have prioritised what we knew would give us some performances here and now instead of giving some of the young players the chance. There have been some things along the way that we would have done differently if it had only been about the performances."Norwich will have Jack Wilshere in interim charge again for their final game of the season at home to relegated Cardiff on Saturday (12:30 BST).Thorup said he would not be surprised to see the ex-Arsenal midfielder handed the role on a permanent basis."I knew Jack's terms of employment, so I knew that at some point he would step up as head coach, and we had also made a good plan with him," he said."The premise for bringing him in was his next step in his career, where he had to move on from Norwich or Glen (Riddersholm - assistant) and I had to move on from Norwich so that he could become head coach."
New York Times
27-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Jack Wilshere has waited patiently for his managerial chance. Now he has the taste for it
Jack Wilshere was smiling, shaking hands and slapping backs. There were a few hugs. The final whistle had just blown on Middlesbrough versus Norwich City and rarely has a 0-0 result been met with such pleasure. Norwich are 14th in the Championship — nowhere-land — but a point had been won and another had been made. On his first afternoon as the interim head coach, Wilshere had stopped Norwich losing. Advertisement Some might not consider that the greatest achievement of Wilshere's career, but you could not tell afterwards. 'Honestly? I loved it,' were his first words in his first post-match press conference. It was a day, a week, of firsts for the 33-year-old former Arsenal and England midfielder. It turns out that to emerge with a grin was one of his key targets. Wilshere was informed on Tuesday he would be replacing — temporarily for now — Johannes Hoff Thorup. That came after a 3-1 loss at Millwall on Monday, the Canaries' sixth in their past eight games. A season that contained hope as recently as February had drifted into unsmiling dullness. Wilshere, doing his UEFA Pro Licence, had joined Thorup's staff in October before a thrilling 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough and has witnessed the slide from within. He will have private thoughts on that — as will Thorup. But once the decision was made to dispense with the Dane, Wilshere was in the building and determined to change the record. This was literal — music has been a notable addition to the Norwich training ground this week. As Wilshere said on Friday in another first — his first pre-match press conference — in terms of what he wants to bring to the role, 'the biggest thing is energy'. He got that. The away dressing room at the Riverside Stadium is adjacent to the media room and you could hear New Order's Blue Monday drumbeat pounding before kick-off. It would be an exaggeration to say Norwich came out dancing, but there was a determination apparent to end a run of three consecutive defeats. In each of those games Norwich were behind at half-time. Middlesbrough, flat again, did produce a few first-half moments but Angus Gunn made a useful save, Callum Doyle produced a big block and an early Hayden Hackney shot had Wilshere down on his haunches hoping for the best. After 45 minutes, 0-0 it was. Advertisement After the interval, Wilshere made changes. They kept Norwich competitive and Josh Sargent hit the post on one of several breakaways. Boro's keeper Mark Travers had to be sharp. As the home side pressed for a win, Norwich stayed resilient. A first away clean sheet since February 1 was secured. 'I said to the players before the game that you have to make sure you stay in games,' Wilshere said. 'Too many times this season we've conceded one, then another and then you're chasing games. It becomes a game that doesn't suit us. 'I think it's interesting the way we talk about defending. When you're a defender you love defending. If you're not a defender, you have to create what I call a love for defending. They made a big step in that today.' Wilshere, the staff and players took a few more, walking over to salute the travelling fans after the handshakes and hugs. Wilshere's father Andy was among them, though the coach could not pick him out. But they were due to meet as Wilshere was not boarding the team bus back to Norfolk; he is running the London Marathon on Sunday morning. 'My Dad came to the game today and he can take me straight home and I can rest a bit,' said Wilshere. 'I can watch the game back in the car, then get ready for tomorrow.' He is running for the British Heart Foundation, his daughter Siena having had to undergo heart surgery. His first Saturday morning as a head coach had involved a 3km run to keep the rhythm. There was a team meeting, a first starting XI selected — four changes made — lunch and a first team talk. How was it all? 'Honestly? I loved it. I am really fortunate to have the support of everyone and I felt that all week. There was a real togetherness today and, yeah, I was the one standing at the front, but it's been a week where we've all come together.' Advertisement What was behind the changes? 'A little bit tactically, but the main focus was the same — energy, hunger, desire, fight, win your duels. The basics a footballer needs. 'The way the game is today, the intensity, the physical load, the cognitive load, you have to make subs, make changes, they have to be ready and they helped the team get a point.' Initially Wilshere said he did nothing special for his first senior pre-match team talk (he coached Arsenal's under-18s previously), but then he corrected himself. 'Actually I did do something (different),' he said. 'Pete Dye, the kitman, he gave the last speech before the players went out. 'When you talk about unity, this club is full of good people and someone like Pete, he really cares. This is his life. That was important for the players to hear that. It worked. From where we've come from this week, we needed a bit of inspiration and Pete gave us that.' So this was not a day when Wilshere questioned the wisdom of the mad profession of football management? 'My ambition is to be a head coach,' he said. 'I didn't want to take a step until I was ready to impact at this level and it's taken two-and-a-half years. I can still improve and I'm still hungry to get better. But I feel like I'm ready.' He was still smiling as he left. As Wilshere and his players greeted the Norwich fans, across the Riverside pitch, Michael Carrick and his Middlesbrough squad were conducting a disconsolate lap of appreciation in a largely emptied stadium. Fleetingly, Carrick and Wilshere were England team-mates. For Boro the season had come down to a sprint, not a marathon. Or as Carrick called it, 'a two-game shootout'. When Coventry City in sixth place lost at Luton Town in the lunchtime kick-off, Boro, in seventh, knew a home win would lift them above Coventry, the team they travel to face on the final day of the league season next Saturday. Advertisement Beating Norwich would make that a much more comfortable trip. But as the game petered out towards its inevitable goalless end and news of victories for Millwall and Blackburn Rovers filtered in, Boro's possible sixth spot had become the reality of ninth. 'We couldn't find that spark,' Carrick said. 'It's one of those days today.' Boro's fanbase will retort that there has been more than one of those lately. When Boro drew that game 3-3 at Norwich in October, with Wilshere in attendance, they had just beaten Sheffield United at the Riverside and were about to score four at QPR, five at home to Luton and six at Oxford United. They were fifth, five points off top and full of confidence. They also had Emmanuel Latte Lath, who got a hat-trick at Oxford, and a buzz. But Boro sold Latte Lath to Atlanta United in MLS at the start of February and immediately lost the next three. It was an understandable business decision and the player wanted to go, but there are consequences. Here they finished with centre-half Dael Fry up front trying to disrupt Wilshere's newly-resolute Norwich defence. Carrick shook his head. Middlesbrough had not lost the match, but they lost a chance. They have taken four points from the past five games. And so as Wilshere smiled, he saw in Carrick's grimace another face of football management.
ITV News
23-04-2025
- Sport
- ITV News
Norwich City sack Johannes Hoff Thorup and put ex-Arsenal star Jack Wilshere in temporary charge
Nobel prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr once said: "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." For some predicting the end of the tenure of Bohr's fellow Dane Johannes Hoff Thorup as boss of Norwich City, a working knowledge of Quantum Theory was not required. Thorup, who was appointed on a three-year deal last May, left Norwich on Tuesday alongside his assistant Glen Riddersholm after a string of poor results. A year ago Darren Eadie, who made more than 180 appearances for Norwich between 1993 and 1999, predicted that the coach who would take over the reins from the recently sacked David Wagner would have "a very difficult job". "Some of those big earners will be leaving the football club, and some of the better players will have to go as well to balance the books. So it is a tough ask and a big job ahead. "There's a lot to be looked at. I don't think it's just a quick fix." So it proved. Sporting director Ben Knapper told the club website: 'While we made this appointment with a long-term focus and in line with our wider club strategy and direction, unfortunately recent results and performances have deemed it necessary for us to make a change.' Knapper added: 'I'd like to place on record our sincere thanks to Johannes and Glen. They are both fantastic people who worked tirelessly to help improve and move our football club forward. 'We all wish the two of them the best in the next stage of their respective careers.' Former Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere will take charge of the club for the last two games of the season, an audition perhaps for the main role. Speaking after Thorup's sacking, former City star Eadie said it made sense that Wilshere, who was capped 34 times for his country, would be given the role. "There's a connection there from Arsenal because of Ben Knapper [former Arsenal loans manager], and he has always been looked at as an eventual successor in the longer term," he said. "He's the cheap option as well, let's be honest. I don't mean in terms of his value to the football club, but because he's already in the building so someone who isn't going to cost to bring in. It's easy to say in hindsight that it was a mistake to get rid of Daniel Farke, but it must be said, the pressure had been building on him for some time. Farke had of course already failed in his first attempt to keep Norwich in the Premier League, and his second bid wasn't looking any better - despite ironically beating Brentford away from home in his final game in charge. However, becoming an established Premier League club was the club's ambition at the time, and remains so, and the club's hierarchy felt that it was worth the risk in twisting, as opposed to sticking. At the time of his dismissal, he'd won just six of his 49 top-flight matches - the fourth-worst record of any manager to take charge of at least 20 Premier League games. What can't be disputed is that Norwich have failed to adequately replace him. What Farke did at Carrow Road was special, leading the club to two Championship promotions and creating a bond with the fans that was truly unique. If Canaries fans knew what was to follow, would they have endorsed pulling the trigger? Probably not. But football, and indeed life, doesn't work like that. So significant is the financial prize for staying in the top flight, the club felt that they were left with no choice but to try something different. It clearly hasn't worked, but I'm sure if you asked the sporting director at the time, Stuart Webber, if he'd do the same thing again, he'd make a similar call. Having said that, you'd imagine there was more than a hint of jealousy among those of a Norwich City persuasion this weekend when Farke added yet another Championship promotion to his CV with Leeds United... Absolutely. When Thorup was appointed, part of his remit was to develop the club's young talent and few would argue that he hasn't hit the brief. Right-back Kellen Fisher is a classic example. Signed from then non-league Bromley two years ago, he was a bit-part player last season under David Wagner, but Thorup has shown so much faith in him that he's now one of the first names on the team sheet. A lot of that improvement will be down to Thorup's coaching and the belief he's installed. Countless others have also been handed their debuts this season, including goalkeeper Vicente Reyes, midfielder Gabriel Forsyth and winger Elliot Myles. These are young players that have been given a chance to shine thanks to Thorup's bravery, but in hindsight, Norwich probably let the experience scale tip slightly too far last summer when they decided to get rid of so many senior pros... Back to top Thorup would have known he was likely to lose some of the club's brightest talents when he took the job last summer, and that is one of the reasons Norwich opted to appoint him. At his previous club, FC Nordsjaelland, he had to regularly deal with his best players being sold to bigger clubs on the continent and that was the case again at Carrow Road, with midfielder Gabriel Sara heading to Galatasaray and winger Jonny Rowe joining Marseille. But, that is Norwich's self-proclaimed self-funding model - to develop talent and then sell it on in order to reinvest back in the squad. The key is recruiting enough good players to keep you competitive and that's where the Canaries have struggled. Many of the players they signed last summer came from foreign clubs, and quite understandably, have taken time to adjust to the Championship. The problem is time is one commodity Norwich don't really have. They needed players to be able to hit the ground running in order to realistically mount a promotion challenge, especially when you consider the financial muscle other clubs have. Recruiting more 'Championship-ready players' is likely to be high on the agenda for the club's recruitment team this summer. Injuries also played a huge part in Norwich's season unravelling. On paper, the Canaries' first 11 is arguably as strong as anything in the division but the lack of depth below has been stark. Thorup had to do without star striker Josh Sargent for a large chunk of the season, while lengthy bans for Borja Sainz and Kenny McLean also hit them hard. In the end, it was a perfect storm that Thorup was unable to navigate. Thorup will also have been hugely frustrated that the club's marquee January signing from Slavia Prague, Matej Jurasek, has barely kicked a ball for the club since joining due to injury. Thorup was able to get his team to score plenty - in fact only promoted Leeds have scored more this season - but defensively, he didn't appear to have the answers. That lack of progress is probably what cost him his job, and injury crisis or not, Norwich's hierarchy clearly felt the team should have been further along the track than they were at this point in the journey. Back to top "It's a way of getting him an audition for his last two games: give him an opportunity to show what he can do as a manager. I know he's a very good coach, and I know he's a great lad and a great footballer. "So I think he's a good appointment, but my concern is the strength of the team." And the former Leicester City player said he has no concerns about Wilshere's lack of management experience. "I think good managers can have no experience at all. It doesn't really matter how much experience you've got. He's probably more experienced than Jonannes in terms of the English Championship and the Premier League. "He knows what it's all about and can hit the ground running. I think this season we had a manager who was learning English football and a load of players learning English football that ultimately was the downfall of the club." For the second year in a row the club faced a big summer, added Eadie. "It's also about trying to manage players that the club have quite openly talked about probably [losing] in the summer. "Quite frankly, Josh Sergeant and Borja Sainz are arguably two of the best attackers in the league... "[If they go] I think it shows what we're potentially losing when actually we've got to replace with as good if not better. That's going to be really tough because I don't think those players are around this much." Also among the early names thrown into the hat as the next head coach are ex-Steve Cooper who led Nottingham Forest to promotion, and ex-City full back Russell Martin who took Southampton to the Premier League.
Irish Examiner
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Norwich sack head coach Thorup and place Wilshere in interim charge
Jack Wilshere will take charge of Norwich's final two games of the season after the club parted company with Johannes Hoff Thorup. Norwich have slipped to 14th in the Championship after winning only twice in 14 matches, with their 3-1 Easter Monday defeat at Millwall being their fourth loss in five games. Thorup was appointed head coach on a three-year deal last May and the Dane leaves alongside his assistant, Glen Riddersholm. The Norwich sporting director, Ben Knapper, said: 'Whilst we made this appointment with a long-term focus and in line with our wider club strategy and direction, unfortunately recent results and performances have deemed it necessary for us make a change. 'I'd like to place on record our sincere thanks to Johannes and Glen. They are both fantastic people who worked tirelessly to help improve and move our football club forward. We all wish the two of them the best in the next stage of their respective careers.' The former Arsenal and England midfielder Wilshere retired from playing aged 30 in 2022 after spells with West Ham, Bournemouth and the Danish club AGF. He was appointed Arsenal Under-18s coach and led them to the final of the 2022‑23 FA Youth Cup, before joining Thorup's coaching staff at Norwich in October. Norwich visit playoff-chasing Middlesbrough on Saturday before hosting relegation-threatened Cardiff in their final game of the season on 3 May. Wilshere's former Arsenal teammate Aaron Ramsey will be in the opposite dugout at Carrow Road as the Wales captain has been appointed Cardiff's caretaker manager until the end of the season. West Brom sacked Tony Mowbray on Monday after their own playoff hopes were all but ended.
