Who is Jess Thorup? The Sheffield Wednesday-linked title-winner who defeated Manchester United

Jess Thorup is the latest name linked, and one most Owls fans will be pretty unfamiliar with.

Darren Moore left the club "by mutual consent" three weeks after taking them into the Championship via a dramtic play-off final win over Barnsley. The former centre-back's coaching staff left with him.

At the time time chairman Dejphon Chansiri said he hoped to have a new manager in place before the players returned, but admitted it would be difficult.

The names of former Premier League managers Steven Gerrard and Slaven Bilic appear to have been scrubbed off the list but there has been specualtion around thelikes of Dean Smith, Nathan Jones, Giuseppe Iachini and Xisco Munoz.

Now Thorup's has been thrown in too, so what will Wednesday be getting if he emerges as the new manager?

Playing career

The forward played his best football in his native Denmark but also experienced German, Austrian and Norwegian football.

Thorup made his debut for Odense Boldklub in 1989. He won the Danish legaue in his debut season and the cup in 1991 and 1993.

He moved to German second-tier side Uerdingen in 1996, but after just three goals in 39 league games, he switched to Tirol Innsbruck midway through the 1997-98 campaign.

At the end of the campaign he returned home with Esbjerg, scoring 58 goals in 203 appearances. His swansong took him to HamKam in Norway before returning to Ejsberg as player-assistant coach.

Managerial career

Thorup had a three-game spell as caretaker manager of Ejsberg in November 2008 after the sacking of Troels Bech but returned to the ranks when Ove Pedersen was appointed as the permanent head coach.

He would finally get the job in March 2011 when Pedersen was sacked but was unable to save the club from relegation.

However, he led them back to the Superliga at the first attempt and won the Danish Cup the following season, earning him the title of Denamrk’s manager of the year.

By then he was working his notice in Jutland, having been offered a place in the national set-up to work with the under-20s and -21s. In 2015 he took Denmark to the semi-finals of the European Under-21 Championship, losing to eventual winners Sweden.

That persuaded Danish title winners Midtjylland to bring him back to domestic football for the 2015-16 season. Midtjylland dropped out of the Champions League and were beaten by Manchester United in the last 16 of the Europa League, but not before giving the Red Devils a scare with a 2-1 first-leg win.

In October 2018, he made his first managerial move away from Denmark, coaching Gent, then Genk in Belgium.

At Gent he qualified for both the Europa and Champions League, but he was sacked two games into 2020-21 before he could take his team into the latter competition, and moved to Genk.

Thorup returned to Denmark as Copenhagen coach in November 2020, taking them to the last-16 of the new UEFA Conference League, then the 2022 Danish title.

Despite qualifying for last season's Champions League, he was sacked for a poor start to the domestic season and has not worked since.

Playing style

Thorup tends to favour a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 formation with zonal pressing. Moore built the present squad around a 3-5-2 formation but did prioritise versatile players who should easily be able to adapt to different shapes.

Width and overloads are an important part of his game.

Copenhagen were top-scorers in the 2020-21 Superliga, when they finsihed third. They dropped behind Midtjylland in that regard the next season but won the title.

Midtjylland were the second-highest scorers in his debut campaign there.