Worcester Warriors' board could appoint director of rugby before sale of club, admits chairman Bill Bolsover

Chairman Bill Bolsover said Warriors’ chiefs have been left in a “chicken and egg” situation as they balance finding Gary Gold’s successor with securing a new owner.

The deadline for applications for the top job at the Aviva Premiership strugglers has been set for Friday at 5pm.

Bolsover admitted he had been “amazed” by the quality and quantity of people who had thrown their name into the mix and felt the response showed Worcester were “still seen as a sleeping giant”.

However, owners Sixways Holdings Limited are also in process of selling the club with the hope of completing the deal within the “next few months”.

If the situation is not resolved by then, Bolsover said he and his directors would consider appointing a director of rugby themselves.

“There is a chicken and egg (situation),” he said.

“When will we sell the club and when do we appoint (a director of rugby)?

“If we cannot go down the route of selling the club in the right time then we would have to look seriously at appointing a director of rugby ourselves.

“The idea would be to finish a deal shortly and at that stage then a new owner would be able to appoint the director of rugby.”

Warriors have been put on the market for £9.7million with the 50-acre Sixways site also valued at £17million.

“In an ideal world we would like to get that done in the next few months,” Bolsover continued.

“We have got a situation where we have got to get the players and the coaches concentrating on what they’re doing on the pitch as it will be confusing for those guys.

“We have got to have a very neat and succinct sale of the club and that will be taken into account depending on where we are in the season.”

Since it was announced in early October that Gold would be leaving to become USA head coach next summer, Warriors have been busy looking for a new man to take over at the helm.

Bolsover said he wanted Warriors’ next director of rugby to be on a three-year contract in a bid to help create stability at the club.

“I have been amazed and really pleased (with the response we have had),” Bolsover said.

“This place is still seen as a sleeping giant and there is a lot of people who want to come here and just make that move into that top six.

“The next stage after (the application deadline) is to review all of those and move them into two or three piles and then we will go through that process.

“But in the meantime not forgetting the process of the club being sold alongside it.”

He added: “It will be very unusual for us to do (a deal for just one year), but it depends if we had sold the club.

“I did the deal with Dean (Ryan) which was a rolling contract as I wanted him to stay much longer than the five.

“Three years is the minimum we should look for as it takes anyone three years to get you where you want to be and the next two years is when you move ahead.”