Rowett’s not a bottler
GARY OUT TO LEAVE JOSE WHINING
GARY ROWETT won’t have a £450 bottle of wine waiting for Jose Mourinho tonight.
The Derby boss said his late grandfather, a Yorkshire miner, would have killed him if he spent that much on a bottle of vintage plonk.
Rowett reckons Bristol City’s Carabao Cup victory over United last month has made his chances of springing a cup shock at Old Trafford far harder.
City boss Lee Johnson splashed out on a bottle of Mourinho’s favourite Barca Velha Red 2004 ahead of their quarter-final clash, not that the United boss hung around long enough to drink it after his side lost.
Rowett said: “If I thought I could beat Manchester United by paying £450 for a bottle of wine I’d do it, but I don’t think it will make a great deal of difference.
“We’ll get straight on the coach. We’ll say thanks very much for their hospitality but I wouldn’t buy myself a £450 bottle of wine, so I’m not going to buy anybody else one.
“My grandad was a coal miner from Yorkshire so I don’t think he would have.
“If he was alive today he definitely wouldn’t speak to me if I spent that sort of money on wine.”
Rowett certainly isn’t knocking Johnson’s headline-hitting approach.
He texted the City boss his congratulations but says it’s given his side a stiffer task tonight.
“They’ve made it harder for sure. Everyone will see what a team in our division has done,” said Rowett.
“I texted Lee and said congratulations, because while we are all competitors you respect a fantastic job.
“But it’s going to be very difficult for two Championship teams to knock United out of cup competitions so there is less expectation on us.”