Sheffield Wednesday have appointed former West Bromwich Albion and Bolton boss Gary Megson as their new manager.

The 51-year-old has agreed a three-and-a-half-year contract and again links up with Wednesday chairman Milan Mandaric, whom he worked under at Leicester City.

Megson replaces Alan Irvine, who left Hillsborough on Thursday with the Owls lying 12th in League One.

"I am delighted with this appointment because Gary is a top drawer manager," Mandaric told the club website.

"He has tremendous experience in the Championship and the Premiership and that is where Sheffield Wednesday needs to be.

606: DEBATE I urge all fans for the good of our beloved club to put our 100 per cent backing behind him and stop the rot at our club yorksowl

"My target when I bought this club was promotion this season and that remains the case."

Megson made 286 appearances as a player in two spells with the Yorkshire club, and was appointed Leicester boss by Mandaric in September 2007.

But he left the Walker's Stadium after only six weeks to take charge of Premier League side Bolton Wanderers.

Megson, who has also had spells in charge of Norwich, Blackpool, Stockport, Stoke and Nottingham Forest, has been out of work since leaving the Reebok Stadium in December 2009.

"Wednesday is a club that I know as well as anybody," he told a news conference on Friday.

"I had two spells here as a player and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's something I've always wanted to do and I'm delighted. It's a tough job, but we want to get it moving quickly.

"I don't view it as 14 months out. I had 12 months on gardening leave so I didn't do a great deal. I have missed the football."

Irvine left Hillsborough with Wednesday, who were relegated from the Championship last season, sitting five points above the League One relegation zone and eight points off the play-off places.

"You have to make a change," Mandaric told BBC Radio Sheffield on Thursday. "We just couldn't justify this, not for me, but for the whole club.

"We had a good man, who worked very hard, but things were not going in the right direction. You can't do anything else but make the change.

"We want to bring in the proper guy who will stop the results we've been having and turn us around."

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