City 'poised to appoint' ex-Notts County boss as Skubala's assistant

According to BBC Sport's Nick Mashiter, Burchnall - who most recently coached at Aberdeen - is set to join Skubala at Ashton Gate, a little over a fortnight after the 43-year-old was confirmed as Roy Hodgson's successor following the 78-year-old's spell as interim head coach.

Alongside the ex-Viking and Östersund manager, City are believed to be attempting to bring QPR first-team coach Bould to the West Country as Skubala aims to shape his coaching staff. The ex-Arsenal defender joined the ranks at Loftus Road last year.

Having started his coaching career in his early 20s with the University of Leeds, Burchnall became Brian Dean's assistant manager at Sarpsborg 08 in 2012.

He remained with the Norwegian club until he moved to Viking as Kjell Jonevret's assistant. When Jonevret was sacked two years later, he stepped up to become manager. A spell with Östersund followed as Burchnall succeeded fellow Englishman Graham Potter in the Swedish club's dugout.

After two years in Sweden, the now 43-year-old stepped down from his position and a year later took up his first role back in English football as he was named Notts County boss. The club qualified for the play-offs twice under his management, but weren't able to win promotion out of the National League before he joined Forest Green Rovers in League One in 2022.

Burchnall's time at the New Lawn Stadium was short-lived, as he and Forest Green parted company in January of the following year with the club bottom of England's third tier with just five league wins to their name.

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Since leaving Rovers, the 43-year-old has held coaching positions at Anderlecht, Wolves - where he worked alongside former Robins midfielder Gary O'Neil - the Jamaican national side and, most recently, Aberdeen. At Pittodrie, Burchnall formed part of interim manager Peter Leven's backroom staff.

During his time with Jamaica, Steve McLaren was the national side's head coach. As a result, Burchnall was understood to be close to being named Rotherham United boss last month, with McLaren the Millers' head of football, but no such move has been completed.

Like Burchnall, Bould is an experienced coach. The former defender was assistant at Arsenal between 2012 and 2019, with his spell with the first team bookended by stints in charge of the Gunners’ Under-18s and Under-23s.

After leaving the Emirates in 2021, the 63-year-old spent three years with Belgian side Lommel - now managed by former City boss Lee Johnson - before becoming QPR's head of defensive coaching and part of Julien Stephan's staff last June.

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The Robins are yet to confirm the make-up of Skubala's staff heading into pre-season. The 43-year-old's assistants at Lincoln City, Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw, won't be making the move to south Bristol, having been named as the Imps' new joint head coaches.

Whether those who formed Hodgson's staff during the former England boss' interim stint at Ashton Gate, such as Craig Fleming, Pat Mountain and Alex Ball, will remain in post is not yet clear, but Skubala is targeting a blend of new and existing faces.

"We're in a good place," the Robins manager told Bristol Live last week when asked if talks had been held around the make-up of his staff. "That will be announced in the not too distant future, with the staff team.

"We'll bring staff in, but again, when I came to Lincoln, I didn't take any staff, which people find unusual, but I think I'm really good at developing people, the staff as well. There will be some staff [who] come in and some staff who will stay, which is great.

"I'm just trying to get the blend to that, but in due course, we'll announce all of that."