Derek McInnes – who took Hearts to the brink of the title only to lose out on the final day to Celtic – replaced Rohl.

After Thursday’s Europa League exit to Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok, McInnes has now failed to win his opening four games.

Rohl, speaking before that defeat, says: “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.”

Rohl is focused and settled in Austria, returning to Salzburg after starting his coaching career at RB Leipzig under Ralph Hassenhuttl, before following him to Southampton.

He joins with Salzburg having failed to lift the Austrian Bundesliga title for the past three seasons – after winning the previous 10 in a row. They finished third last season.

Rohl’s move to Austria continues his history of bold career choices.

“This is the main part of my character, be brave. In the last three years I always pushed the limit,” says Rohl, who describes saving Sheffield Wednesday from relegation in 2023-24 as a miracle.

“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.”

Lucas Gourna-Douath is the latest, the midfielder close to joining Hull, but a recent list underlines the quality of the production line at Taxham.

Karim Adeyemi moved to Borussia Dortmund in 2022 and joined Barcelona this summer while Erling Haaland’s season at the club in 2019-20 gave him the platform to join Borussia Dortmund. Sadio Mane, Dayot Upamecano and Dominik Szoboszlai are all alumni.

Former Bayern Munich and Germany coach Rohl adds: “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.

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

Werro survived an almighty scare on Thursday when she suffered a nasty fall in her semi-final, before later being reinstated in the competition.

Recovering impressively both physically and mentally from that shock, she showed great maturity to hold off Hodgkinson in the tense closing stages – while breaking a championship record that had stood since 1982.

“I knew I could be European champion one day. I hope to be faster and faster next year,” Werro said.

“When I was a child, my dad used to tell me I have to be a lion. I shouldn’t be shy and let other athletes go past me, so I decided to do a celebration with that when I crossed the line.”

In claiming her first senior international title, Werro has proven she is ready to rival the Briton for the sport’s biggest prizes for years to come.

“Audrey Werro is still young and that was a huge amount of pressure, even without the fall and the bruising,” former marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe told BBC TV.

“She pulled it together and took the race by the scruff of the neck, which I think Keely did intend for her to do – but she thought she could come back at her.

“Werro just had another gear.”

Hodgkinson jokingly removed her medal in disgust when asked how she felt after the final.

Despite her disappointment, this was her 12th senior international medal and she continues to progress her times, lowering her personal best in all but her injury-devastated 2025 season across the past four years.

Hodgkinson has long maintained that she has felt the world record is within her reach.

Going forward, she will be aware that may soon be required just to win the titles she craves.

IRVINE, Calif. — On Lani Pallister’s left arm, just below her wrist, she has a tattoo that reads “Hope is not a strategy.” The 24-year-old developed that outlook after a trying 2021. On top of missing the team for that year’s Olympics, she underwent a heart procedure and battled an eating disorder.

“I kind of just hoped everything would work itself out,” said the Australian, who went on to win a 4×200-meter freestyle relay gold at the 2024 Olympics. “It wasn’t until I kind of sat down and talked to my psych and the network around me and actually talked about all the things that had kind of gone wrong that (I realized) it’s not a strategy to just kind of coast through life.

“That year taught me a lot in resilience, and it’s definitely made me who I am now.”

Who she is now is one of the best swimmers in the world, one who looks as if she’ll be a major factor at the 2028 Olympics. Her breakout continued Friday at the Pan Pacific Championships, one of the biggest international meets of the year. She held off Katie Ledecky in the 400 freestyle, posting a personal-best and 2026 world-leading time (3 minutes, 58.42 seconds) and winning her fourth medal of the meet, her third gold.

After her morning swim, Pallister called the 400 an event she’s “still trying to figure out” and mentioned being tired of repeatedly seeing 3:59 on the clock after touching the wall. She dipped below it Friday, dripping below her entry time of 3:58.87.

That didn’t quite satisfy her.

“I would’ve liked (3:57), but I think as athletes you always want more,” she said, adding she wanted personal bests this week and is pleased she got them in the 400 and 1,500 freestyles and came within two-hundredths of a second of another in her 200. She has one more individual event left: the 800 freestyle Saturday, which will include another showdown with Ledecky.

The 400 freestyle was one of the most anticipated events of the meet, in part because of the potential showdown of Pallister, Ledecky and Canadian star Summer McIntosh. The final, though, did not include McIntosh, who holds the world record (3:54.18). The four-time Olympic medalist took her preliminary heat too easy and got out-touched by Yaqi Fan, a mistake she said “will never happen again.”

So it was only Ledecky and Pallister — the greatest distance swimmer ever against an ascending one who grew up idolizing her. A decade ago, Ledecky signed an autograph for Pallister, then 14, inscribing it with “Dream big!” On Friday, Pallister led wire to wire, a testament not only to the level she’s swimming at but also a reminder of the rest of the world’s best catching up to the once-infallible Ledecky.

Ledecky, winner of 14 Olympic medals, including nine golds, felt she didn’t start the race quickly enough and wasn’t happy to finish over 4 minutes. She also raved about Pallister, who won two individual medals at the 2025 World Championships.

“She has such great range,” Ledecky said. “It’s just great to have her in all these races and continue to push this sport forward.”

Said Pallister: “To be able to have someone as dominant and successful as her also be cheering and being excited for everyone else’s success is just a testament to who she is, and I think it’s a big reason why the whole world is a fan of Katie.”

Pallister’s performance this week, which comes on the heels of her winning five medals at the Commonwealth Games, has jumped out to her Australian teammates. Matthew Temple said her performance (as well as countryman Sam Short’s in the men’s 400) served as motivation heading into his 100 butterfly win. Short affectionately referred to her as “an animal.”

Pallister called racing “honestly my favorite thing” and said that’s been the case since she was young. Growing up in Sydney, she competed with her brother over everything, whether it was who could eat cereal fastest to who beat the other running home from the beach. That fire makes for a potent combination with her swimming roots. Her mother (and former coach), Janelle Pallister, swam at the 1988 Olympics and won three medals at the Commonwealth Games two years later.

The younger Pallister credited Janelle with never forcing her into the sport and stressing the need to have fun.

“I was often compared to my mom and my mum’s career, and I think she taught me a lot of humility and also how to deal with external pressure really young,” Pallister said. “She pretty much had the playbook to success for me. She’s done everything that I have, just 32 years prior.”

Well, not quite everything. This level of success — the toppling of world record-holders and the quantity of international medals — is new to the family. Pallister’s process, not relying on hope as a strategy, is working.

Other Day 3 Pan Pac notes

• The U.S. women set an American record in the 4×100 freestyle relay, highlighted by Kate Douglass’ leadoff split. She blasted a 51.69, only one-hundredth of a second off Marrit Steenbergen’s individual world record in the 100 freestyle. Douglass opted not to race the individual 100, instead swimming the 100 breaststroke Thursday. She finished fourth in that event.

“My goal was to break the world record,” the 24-year-old said. “It hurts to break the world record. It hurts to be so close to it and not get it, but I’m still really happy with that swim. Obviously that’s a huge best time for me, so I can’t be upset about it.”

Douglass, who trains at the University of Virginia, is one of the world’s most versatile swimmers. She said she plans to double in the 50 freestyle and 200 breaststroke Saturday, the final day of the meet.

• Regan Smith posted a monster preliminary heat time in the 200 backstroke, going 2:04.13, within a second of Kaylee McKeown’s world record (2:03.14).

The 24-year-old, an eight-time Olympic medalist who trains at University of Texas, was unhappy with her 100 backstroke Wednesday — “That was just not the type of swimmer that I like to think that I am,” she told reporters Friday morning — which she said left a chip on her shoulder for the 200.

“I know people have had their opinions about my performance and my teammates’ performances,” she said after the preliminaries. “Hope that shut ’em up for the morning.”

Smith was slower in the evening but still won gold in 2:05.57 but said she was psyched with the day on the whole.

“I think it was more about this morning, and this morning felt like a really great setup swim,” she said.

• The U.S. and Australia won four golds Friday, and Japan and China each won one.