Leeds United's Championship rivals 'about to sign' new manager as Daniel Farke trick repeated

Hull City look set to appoint Tim Walter as their new manager, following the shock decision to sack Liam Rosenior earlier this week.

Rosenior was shown the door on Tuesday evening after failing to get Hull in the Championship play-offs, with their final-day defeat at Plymouth Argyle leaving them three points off Norwich City. The news came as a major surprise, given the 39-year-old was nominated for the league’s Manager of the Season award alongside Leeds United’s Daniel Farke and eventual winner Kieran McKenna of Ipswich Town.

Owner Acun Ilicali described it as one of the toughest decisions he’d made and many supporters were left scratching their heads, with the Hull chief under pressure to find an equally-promising replacement. German Walter has been among the favourites and Sky Germany reports that he is now ‘set to sign’ at the MKM Arena.

Talks between Hull and Walter are well underway and should present few issues, with the manager out of work since leaving second-tier German side Hamburger SV in February. The 48-year-old’s previous jobs include Stuttgart, Holstein Kiel and Bayern Munich reserves.

Walter is expected to have his foot in the door before the summer transfer window opens as Hull prepare for another campaign in the Championship. A busy window is expected with many of Rosenior's top players from this season on loan and now returning to parent clubs. The Tigers will expect to be pushing for play-offs or automatic promotion again.

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All of Walter’s previous experience has come in his homeland and it appears Hull are attempting to follow a recent trend of Championship success in appointing German head coaches. Now at Leeds, Farke first arrived in England when appointed by Norwich city in 2017 and went on to win promotion twice at Carrow Road, having only managed in Germany beforehand.

Current Norwich boss David Wagner also enjoyed great success in his first job in England, guiding Huddersfield Town to the Premier League after winning the 2017 Championship play-offs. Sheffield Wednesday are the most recent to follow such a path and have been excellent since appointing 35-year-old Danny Rohl in October, defying early odds to remain in the Championship.

Farke and Walter do not appear to have crossed paths in their respective managerial careers, with the latter’s first job at Bayern Munich reserves coming in the same summer that the former left Borussia Dortmund reserves for Norwich. Farke’s season back in Germany with Borussia Monchengladbach came while Walter was at second-tier Hamburger.

Farke will hope to keep it that way but will only do so if he gets Leeds promoted to the Premier League via the play-offs. He faces fellow German Wagner and Norwich in the semi-finals, with the first leg at Carrow Road on Sunday before Elland road plays host to the return leg on Thursday. The winner of that two-legged tie will face one of Southampton or West Brom at Wembley, with the play-off final on Sunday, May 26.