Walsall have announced the appointment of former Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke as their new manager.
Clarke has signed a three-year deal with the Saddlers who suffered relegation from League One on the final day of the campaign after a poor run of form that saw them win just five league games from the end of October and ended their twelve-year stay in the third tier.
Clarke arrives in the West Midlands with an excellent pedigree having guided his previous club Bristol Rovers to back to back promotions before leaving the Gas in December by mutual consent.
Rovers had lost seven of their previous ten games in all competitions and were twenty-first in League One, four points from safety when he departed.
The forty-one-year-old initially joined the Gas as the assistant to John Ward, who now happens to be Walsall’s professional development coach, in June 2013 after a spell as boss of non-league Salisbury City.
He replaced Ward as the manager in March 2014 with the Gas struggling at the wrong end of the League Two table but failed to guide them to safety, and they dropped out of the EFL for the first time in ninety-four years.
However, he then led them to an immediate return to League Two, beating Grimsby on penalties in the National League play-off final at Wembley, and followed this up with automatic promotion from the fourth tier on the final day of the season at the first attempt in 2015/16.
Judging by the reaction on Twitter Clarke is still very popular in Bristol, with the announcement of his appointment dominated by messages of goodwill from Gas fans.
Here is a small selection of their responses.
https://twitter.com/brfc83/status/1126775250555772930
https://twitter.com/KatSav78/status/1126779227259510784
https://twitter.com/UTG1883/status/1126771594649432064
https://twitter.com/jade0208/status/1126772554977267712
https://twitter.com/holmz1980/status/1126771508070633477
https://twitter.com/BRFCAdams/status/1126774033939189760
https://twitter.com/Namgur45/status/1126798144862343168
https://twitter.com/Kpz2005/status/1126791387901583363
https://twitter.com/ericbeard1883/status/1126789043600150533
https://twitter.com/OatleyDominic/status/1126787173968175104
https://twitter.com/MikeOnHorn/status/1126786604385873920
