Handshakes, confidence and bassist vibes: Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Röhl delivers bang-on first impression

Smartly dressed with ankles peeking from between shoe and trouser end, the 34-year-old German approached each broadcast journalist, newspaper hack and cameraman and extended a hand. The greeting came with a firm handshake and focus on the eyeballs. It was a nice touch in what was his unveiling as a first team manager.

The first thing you notice about Röhl is an understated confidence. You’d say he gave off a vibe of a handsome bassist for a major Britpop band if Alex James wasn’t two decades older. With his ankles and his haircut and first and foremost what he hear is a forward-thinking approach to how he intends to go about his time with Wednesday, Danny Röhl seems to be a thoroughly modern man.

Save for a few press conferences deputising for Hansi Flick during time with little-known footballing institutions such as Bayern Munich and the German national team, he hadn’t done much like this before.

You’d never have been able to tell. His body language was quietly assertive and open, his batting away of politely-put question marks over his age and the scale of the challenge quietly masterful. His English is grand. He may be 34, he said, but he has 10 years experience in some of the biggest roles in world coaching. Röhl innocently dropped in a couple of genuinely, world-over modern greats he had worked with in recent years when discussing the fact he’s older than Lee Gregory.

His English is exceptional and strikes as fiercely intelligent, his reputation as a stats and analysis fiend proceeding him but fitting perfectly with the man introduced. He’s a wiry and imposing figure, standing a few inches over six-foot.

Further reading of his answers to all the classic getting-to-know-you queries will be packaged-up and released in the coming days while Röhl gets to work meeting his players and setting about turning around the club’s hobbling start to the campaign.

This afternoon, in a plush South Stand guest suite usually reserved for matchday high-ups, it was about the first impressions, an opportunity to lift the fanbase that he won’t get again. On that front he did excellently.

To his right, Owls chairman Dejphon Chansiri spoke only to introduce his new boss and then to encourage the German to extend the more Championship-suited philosophies Xisco had tried and ultimately failed to instil. Röhl spoke of philosophies and approaches over systems and set-ups. Speaking to the written press, a smile creaked from the corner of his mouth when he mentioned developing an identity at S6. He wants to build things, his previous interviews have hinted - and the result of an hour’s chin-wag suggests he’s got the bit between his teeth.

Danny Röhl has walked into a difficult job, of that there is no argument. But you get the impression he has done so with his eyes wide open.

It was an impressive opening gambit.