Schalke appoint Plymouth boss Muslic as head coach

Miron Muslic joined Plymouth Argyle in January after Wayne Rooney's sacking

Schalke have appointed Plymouth Argyle boss Miron Muslic as their head coach on a two-year deal.

The Pilgrims said on Wednesday that the 42-year-old Bosnian-born Austrian would not return to the club after the summer break.

Muslic replaced former England captain Wayne Rooney as Argyle boss in mid-January, with Plymouth bottom of the Championship.

He was unable to stop the club from being relegated from the second tier, despite masterminding a famous FA Cup win over Premier League champions Liverpool.

Muslic joins a Schalke side who finished 14th in the German second tier this season - the club that was a regular in the Champions League and Europa League for the first two decades of this century will start a fourth season in the past five outside of the Bundesliga.

"My thanks go first to Plymouth Argyle, who made it possible for me to hold talks with FC Schalke 04," said Muslic.

"I'm also very grateful to all those at Schalke for placing their trust in me. From the very first contact, we had open and honest discussions."

The former Cercle Bruges boss signed a three-and-a-half year contract when he moved to Home Park, and reports in Germany suggest Argyle will receive 1m euros (£840,000) in compensation.

BBC Sport understands Argyle have already begun the search for their new head coach and have held exploratory talks with a number of potential candidates.

Muslic replaces Dutch coach Kees van Wonderen, who was sacked earlier this month.

'Miron gave us no choice but to move on'

In a message on the Argyle website, chairman Simon Hallett said the club were "disappointed" in the "timing and manner" of Muslic's departure.

"After the season ended, and with rumours flying that Miron was attracting interest from other clubs, I called him personally and he assured me that he was 100% committed to Argyle. His colleagues had no indication that he wanted to leave," he said.

"Last Saturday, Miron informed the club that he wished to speak with Schalke with a view to joining them. Under his contract, a club wishing to speak with him needs Argyle's prior permission. We were unwilling to give such permission, but Miron informed us that under no circumstances was he going to return to Plymouth. Thus, we reluctantly gave the necessary permission.

"By making clear his intention never to return, Miron gave us no choice but to move on. We could have insisted on the full compensation and gone to court to enforce his contract but would not have had his services as head coach, and progress on recruiting a replacement would have been blocked.

"Rather than get mired in a protracted, and highly disruptive, process we settled for an amount of compensation that, while below the contracted sum, is a strong financial outcome for a League One head coach, enabling us to move on positively."