Danny Röhl's New Challenge at Red Bull Salzburg

Danny Röhl leans back in his chair, the Berchtesgaden Alps cutting a sharp line across the Salzburg sky behind him, and smiles.

"Some people were asking why but I felt this is the right one now. I can confirm, it's a good move," he says.

At 37, the former Rangers head coach has swapped the noise of Glasgow for the relative hush of Red Bull Salzburg’s training base in Taxham. An immaculate office, mountains on the horizon, a club in need of a reboot. It is a long way, in every sense, from the crisis he walked into at Sheffield Wednesday and the storm he left behind at Ibrox.

From Ibrox chaos to a new Alpine project

Röhl’s eight months at Rangers were breathless. He arrived with the club languishing in sixth in the Scottish Premiership, one win from eight, a season already threatening to fall apart. Under him, Rangers surged back into the title race. For a while, the turnaround bordered on the remarkable.

Then the pressure bit back. Four defeats in their final five league games killed the challenge and left Rangers third. The revival fell short, but it had been real enough that Röhl fully expected to stay.

He was not alone in that expectation.

The plan was to build on the chaos he had steadied. Instead, a phone call in June, while he was on holiday, changed everything.

"I was not prepared for this change in the summer," he tells BBC Sport. "I was in Hawaii, the time difference was 12 hours and I was often on the main deck on the cruise around five or six in the morning. I had some calls and I thought about the situation.

"I have all these situations in my mind. I saw the beautiful sea, I saw the sun and then you think: 'OK, what is the future?'"

On one side, Rangers and an unfinished story. On the other, Salzburg and a fresh start in a familiar footballing network.

"I spoke, of course, with Rangers. I was really transparent and open on how I feel, how I see it. On the other side, there was Red Bull Salzburg, especially Marcus [Mann, sporting director] - he really gave me the feeling of what we can do here.

"I said from the first day to both, if there's no agreement then we carry on, we move on because I have big respect to Rangers. It was also clear, our story was not finished.

"I saw a lot of opportunities, what we can do in the summer, what we should do but on the other side, I saw also a good opportunity to restart, to start from zero with a group of players with high quality."

Rangers moved on, appointing Derek McInnes, the man who had taken Hearts to the brink of the title before losing out to Celtic on the final day. McInnes has endured a tough start. After Thursday’s Europa League exit to Jagiellonia Bialystok, he is still without a win from his opening four games.

Röhl, speaking before that defeat, knows exactly what he left behind.

"Consistency, this is the most important thing. The environment is really demanding.

"Everyone who goes there, it doesn't matter if it's a manager, a player, a staff member, you have to understand this club is demanding and this creates a lot of pressure on people to make the right decisions.

"Nobody can prepare [for] this step. I cannot speak for the new manager but you can't prepare. You have to be there and if you are there, then you really feel what it means."

Back in the Red Bull orbit

Austria is not new territory for Röhl. His coaching career took off in the Red Bull and Bundesliga ecosystem, first at RB Leipzig under Ralph Hasenhüttl, then at Southampton, and later in roles with Bayern Munich and Germany.

Now he returns as the man tasked with waking a giant that has dozed off.

Salzburg once owned the Austrian Bundesliga. Ten titles in a row underlined a domestic dominance that became routine. That run has gone. The club have not lifted the league for the past three seasons and finished third last term.

Röhl has never been shy of a challenge.

"This is the main part of my character, be brave. In the last three years I always pushed the limit," he says, describing his rescue act at Sheffield Wednesday in 2023-24 as a "miracle" after they avoided relegation.

His targets in Salzburg are blunt and unambiguous.

"I want to win titles and, after the season, I will measure myself on this result.

"When you take over, the main part is winning titles, the cup and the league and in the last few years we couldn't win this as a club, this is one big goal.

"The second is of course developing young players."

A production line under pressure

Few clubs in Europe can point to a recent talent list like Salzburg’s. The names are scattered across the continent’s elite.

• Karim Adeyemi left for Borussia Dortmund in 2022 and joined Barcelona this summer.
• Erling Haaland’s single season here in 2019-20 propelled him to Dortmund and then Manchester City.
• Sadio Mané, Dayot Upamecano, Dominik Szoboszlai – all passed through this same training ground in Taxham.

The latest to step off the line is Lucas Gourna-Douath, the midfielder close to joining Hull. The conveyor belt still moves, but the market around Salzburg has changed.

"Ten years ago we were the model for other clubs and now you see more and more on the market have this multi-club ownership and this is also now a competition for us," Röhl says.

His response is simple: win, develop, and entertain.

"I want to win titles, develop young players, be attractive and I want to bring Salzburg back into the light in Europe."

That European light flickered again on Thursday. Salzburg trailed 2-0 away to Pafos in the Europa League before fighting back to draw 3-3 and go through 4-3 on aggregate. It was scruffy, wild, and exactly the sort of resilience Röhl wants to hard-wire into his new team.

The reward is a play-off tie against Swedish side Mjällby.

Domestically, they travel to WSG Tirol on Sunday with four points from their opening two league games: a win over Hartberg and a 1-1 draw at Wolfsberg in which Salzburg dominated but failed to finish the job.

"Nobody spoke directly about the eight changes or the reason why we didn't win," Röhl says with a grin. "We analysed the game, we had greater chances, and we really focused on the content and we were not looking for some headlines.

"The main focus is on the football."

From Glasgow glare to Salzburg calm

That line could be carved into the wall of his new office. After three intense years – the relegation fight at Wednesday, the title chase at Rangers, the constant scrutiny – Salzburg offers something he has not had in a while: space.

His family are still in Leipzig, just a few hours away. Away from the training ground, he has been to the theatre to watch "Jedermann", Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s classic, a centrepiece of the Salzburg Festival for more than a century.

The city gives him something Glasgow never could.

"You can't compare, especially in Glasgow - it's all about football," he says, still speaking warmly of both Rangers and Wednesday. "Let's look just how many podcasts you have after every game. So many opinions.

"Here you are a part of the city. You have loyal supporters but you will have not these [fan] handshakes in the city because this is not usual here.

"It's also enjoyable after three intense years. Ask me - hopefully - after three years here what I like more then I will tell you. But at the moment it's great to go through the city, to have dinner and you are a little undercover."

Undercover, perhaps. But not unnoticed.

Salzburg have hired Röhl to reclaim a title, restart a dynasty, and reload a talent factory in a market now crowded with imitators. The Alps may frame a calmer backdrop than Ibrox, yet the question is anything but gentle:

Can the man who thrives on pushing limits drag a fallen serial champion back to the top?