Sheffield Wednesday have appointed former West Brom, Bolton and Stoke City boss Gary Megson as their new manager.
The 51-year-old has agreed a three-and-a-half-year contract and again links up with Wednesday chairman Milan Mandaric, whom he worked under at Leicester City.
Megson replaces Alan Irvine, who left Hillsborough on Thursday with the Owls lying 12th in League One.
"I am delighted with this appointment because Gary is a top drawer manager," Mandaric told the club website.
"He has tremendous experience in the Championship and the Premiership and that is where Sheffield Wednesday needs to be.
It's a tough job, but we want to get it moving quickly.
"My target when I bought this club was promotion this season and that remains the case."
Megson made 286 appearances as a player in two spells with the Yorkshire club, and was appointed Leicester boss by Mandaric in September 2007.
But he left the Walker's Stadium after only six weeks to take charge of Premier League side Bolton Wanderers.
Megson, who has also had spells in charge of Norwich, Blackpool, Stockport and Nottingham Forest, has been out of work since leaving the Reebok Stadium in December 2009.
"Wednesday is a club that I know as well as anybody," he told a news conference on Friday.
"I had two spells here as a player and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's something I've always wanted to do and I'm delighted. It's a tough job, but we want to get it moving quickly.
"I don't view it as 14 months out. I had 12 months on gardening leave so I didn't do a great deal. I have missed the football."
"You have to make a change," Mandaric told BBC Radio Sheffield on Thursday. "We just couldn't justify this, not for me, but for the whole club.
"We had a good man, who worked very hard, but things were not going in the right direction. You can't do anything else but make the change.
"We want to bring in the proper guy who will stop the results we've been having and turn us around
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See also: Peter Taylor.
this
personally think this is a very good appointment for them
Megson isn't the sort of appointment which inspires you for a run for promotion imo
I wouldnt be too happy if I was a Wednesday fan
The likes of Curbs, Hoddle, Guillit, Graham etc have either priced themselves out of the market or become so choosy that they then struggle to get a foot back on the ladder.
Purse joined "his" club Millwall.
kept bolton up twice knows his football and I think he will do well for them ..
Wednesday have been shipping goals so if he can stop that and get them winning, even Wednesday fans will put up with it.
I won't fancy meeting them in the playoffs with this experienced manager.
Unless Charlton .......................!
Norwich-95-96, failed to acheive promotion back to the prem, sacked.
Blackpool - 96-97, narrowly missed out on the Division 2 play offs, resigned and took the Stockport job
Stockport - 97-99, almost took them to the Division 1 play offs (a big acheivement for a small club), and kept them up the following season, relatively comfortably as far as I recall.
Stoke - 99 - Half a season, then sacked after a consortium took over.
West Brom - 2000-2004 - saved them from relegation in first season, steadied ship, lost in play offs following season, promoted the next. Relegated from Premiership, promoted again, left after falling out with chairman.
Forest - 2005-2006 - disliked, lost dressing room, failed to prevent relegation to League 1, and struggled in League 1 following season. Resigned.
Leicester - 2007 - Left after a few weeks to take Bolton job.
Bolton - 2007-2009 - hated by all at the club, various training ground bust ups with several players, Jussi quoted 'one of the worst men I have ever met', poor quality football. Made some decent signings however and also took them on a decent UEFA Cup run which would have been a lot better had he not fielded his reserves in half the games.
Sorry but that isn't my idea of a good appointment when people like Gary Johnson are about even with the Sheffield Wednesday links.
Regale me in the bits that I have missed, I thought I was being kind to him!
See also: Alan Pardew
Wednesday did OK with Irvine but they can not handle teams who move the ball about at a quick tempo. i.e Charlton, Huddersfield, Peterborough. Can't see Megson doing any better.
Don't think Megson took over the team until after this match, like us with Powell before the match at Hillsborough
MK DONS today - 2 opponents sent off (41 & 85)
HEREFORD (fa cup) - 2 penalties and opponent sent off (68)
YEOVIL - 2 opponents sent off (64 & 69
It's been a bad time for Wednesday to be the worst-form team in the league - the top 7 are also the top 7 form teams.
That has all the hallmarks of a 'make or break' run of games for their season.