SQUEAKY BRUM TIME
Blues call on Rowett to rescue their season
GARY ROWETT has agreed a shock return to Birmingham – to save them from League One.
The club’s former boss responded to an SOS call and will oversee the final eight games as the Second City club battle to avoid the drop.
Rowett has been out of work since leaving Millwall five months ago but will take on the job of preserving Birmingham’s Championship status after a deal was hurriedly struck.
They have won just one of their last six matches under assistant boss Mark Venus and lie outside the relegation zone on goal difference.
With boss Tony Mowbray still recovering from an unspecified medical condition which saw him step aside on February 19, the club’s owners have decided to try and reverse the downward momentum towards the third tier of English football.
Former Birmingham defender Rowett, who managed the club for two seasons from 2014-16, is expected to be employed on a consultancy basis until the end of the campaign. Rowett, who played for the club under the late Trevor Francis, managed the feat of steadying the ship 10 years ago when he took over following an 8-0 home defeat to Bournemouth.
He oversaw a goalless draw in the first game at Wolves and steered the Blues comfortably away from danger.
However, he was sacked in controversial circumstances just hours after a 2-1 victory over Ipswich that lifted Brum into seventh.
They dispensed with his services in favour of the relatively inexperienced Gianfranco Zola – an appointment that saw the Midlanders plummet down the table and only survive when Harry Redknapp was brought in to deliver a last hurrah.
In what are uncannily similar circumstances, Rowett now finds himself in the position of trying to find the victories necessary to prevent the same thing happening.
Birmingham were taken over by American investment house Knighthead last summer and their first full season in charge has been nothing short of chaotic.
They have spent heavily on infrastructure projects but their efforts to spark an upturn on the field have been undermined by the decision to replace John Eustace with Wayne Rooney.
That bizarre move upset the momentum of the campaign and, following a run of just two victories from 15 games, the England great was replaced, with
Mowbray taking charge shortly after he himself had been sacked at Sunderland.
However, he moved away from frontline management duties after the 2-1 defeat of Sunderland due to illness, leaving a void that Rowett will fill until the end of the season.
The decision allows Mowbray, 60, to continue his rehabilitation without being put under the stress of a return, with Rowett given the reins for the crucial run-in.