Wolves boss Kenny Jackett denies Stuart Pearce job offer

Pearce said at a Molineux sporting dinner last week that Jackett had asked him to join his coaching team in the summer. The former England Under-21s coach said he would only have gone in as a manager.

But Jackett flatly denied Pearce's claims. "I haven't approached Stuart Pearce to come on the coaching staff at all," he said. "I couldn't see Stuart being a coach in League One.

"It's an unusual one. I don't know where that came from."

"It seems a strange one to me because he doesn't seem to be right for that role in League One."

Jackett said 40-year-old Gallen, who was his long-term No.2 at the New Den, was always his preferred coach to work with.

"If it was possible, he was always my choice to come in with me in whichever role was available – he was the main one," he said.

"If he'd have been kept on by Millwall, it might have changed things because then you're entering into the realms of compensation.

"But he was told pretty early on 'don't come back for pre-season' because they'd employed other people.

"They had a new manager (Steve Lomas) bringing in his own staff.

"But if I made the right recommendations to (head of football operations), Kevin Thelwell, (chief executive) Jez Moxey and (chairman) Steve Morgan, Joe would have a chance of coming in."

Jackett claims his place in the revamped football structure meant the appointment of even his own staff was down to others.

"Like myself, the board interviewed Joe separately on my recommendations because I wanted him to come in.

"I'm not the person who employs the staff here – I can only make recommendations as to the structure of it," he said.

"And I think after relegation last season, it was a case of how far was the club going to make cuts in League One?

"They were always going to appoint a head coach but what wasn't immediately clear was what the support structure was going to be."