Mark Wotte has been confirmed as the permanent Head Coach, replacing Jan Poortvliet, who resigned last night. Wotte’s first act has been to add Michael Svensson to the coaching staff as player/assistant first-team coach.

Svensson will share first-team coaching responsibilities with Dean Gorre, while also continuing his rehabilitation work to regain full fitness to return to playing duties as soon as possible.

The addition of Svensson to the coaching staff seems a sensible one, he’s always led by example as a player and even though, as far as I’m aware, he doesn’t have any coaching qualifications, he’ll be able to pass on his experience and knowledge to the players. It’ll also be a popular appointment among the fanbase, so for once, the club has probably got the PR right on this one.

The confirmation of Wotte’s appointment, however, is a different kettle of fish. While he was almost appointed in 2005 before George Burley eventually got the job, the idea of appointing from within is one we’ve seen before on more than one occasion in the not-too-distant past, and on every occasion it’s proven to be an absolute disaster.

Stuart Gray, Steve Wigley and the joint control of Jason Dodd and John Gorman have all been given opportunities after the departure of managers they had worked under on the coaching staff, and all were unmitigating failures. Wotte’s situation is slightly different as he wasn’t on the coaching staff, but as the Academy director and reserve team manager, his role has still been one lower down the food chain to his predecessor.

How long he actually gets in his new role is very much up in the air - I can’t help but feel that we’re going to be embarking on another managerial merry-go-round.