Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
COUNTDOWN COTT
Boss Steve on borrowed time as City’s Hong Kong owners run out of patience.. again
STEVE COTTERILL is poised to be the latest victim at crisis-club Birmingham.
Blues prop up the Championship despite spending heavily on 14 new players in the summer.
A poor start saw Harry Redknapp axed from his £1.7million-ayear post and his successor
Cotterill has been unable to stop the rot.
Cotterill will remain in charge for Saturday’s trip to Sunderland and the Boxing Day visit of Norwich.
But the hierarchy at the club – owned by Hong Kong -based Trillion Trophy Asia (TTA) – had targeted promotion and do not want to go into the new year in their current tailspin.
Cotterill became the fourth manager at St Andrew’s in a year when appointed in October. City are anxious to avoid fresh upheaval if at all possible. But a return of just two wins in 11 games – with only four goals scored – has sparked huge concern.
Chief executive Xuandong Ren stressed at Cotterill’s unveiling on a two-and-a-half-year deal that TTA were desperate to rid themselves of a reputation for sacking managers.
But Ren is under the microscope too amid allegations in the Far East over his involvement with a crisis-hit football academy.
And the decision to hire agent Darren Dein on a whopping £25,000-a-month retainer to conduct much of City’s transfer business has raised eyebrows.
It has left Cotterill bemoaning inheriting an unbalanced squad, including five loans, with a huge disparity of wages.
He has already sent loanee Liam Walsh back to Everton and today City planned to cancel the contract of their Wales winger David Cotterill.
TTA have been in charge since October 2016 after buying out the remainder of money-launderer Carson Yeung’s ill-fated regime.
Two months later they fired manager Gary Rowett, despite Blues being seventh in the Championship after beating Ipswich. The club then plummeted down the table under Gianfranco Zola before Redknapp only just kept them up on the final day last term.
Rowett is due to bring his promotion-chasing Derby side to St Andrew’s on January 13, which will further increase the pressure on Birmingham and their decision-makers.