JibrinGary Rowett likened to ‘poisoned chalice’ for Leicester City as unanimous survival verdict delivered
Gary Rowett has 14 matches to save the Foxes from a catastrophic successive relegation
There is no doubting Gary Rowett possesses a wealth of Championship experience.
Since the rebrand of the Championship in 2004-05, only four managers – Neil Warnock, Tony Mowbray, Mick McCarthy and Ian Holloway – have taken charge of more fixtures in the division than Rowett has.
With none of them currently at second-tier clubs, it means Leicester City now boast the most experienced manager in the division in their dugout.
In total, Rowett has overseen 418 Championship matches across five clubs and has been an almost permanent presence in the division for more than a decade.
He holds a points-per-game ratio of 1.46 in the division. If he replicated such a record with City over the next 14 matches, that would secure 20 points, taking them to a tally of 52 for the season, which would likely be sufficient to guarantee survival.
Here, three of our writers here at Reach – Brian Dick, Pete Smith and Dan Marsh – offer an insight into Rowett’s tenures at three previous clubs in the Championship at Birmingham City, Stoke City and Millwall and deliver their verdicts on Leicester’s survival prospects under him.
Birmingham City
Rowett endured two very contrasting spells in charge at Blues, writes Brian Dick, who covered Blues during Rowett’s reigns.
The first, more than a decade ago, under challenging financial circumstances with the club’s owner behind bars – the second, 18 months ago, attempting to salvage the wreckage of a campaign shattered by Wayne Rooney’s incompetence and Tony Mowbray’s illness.
Rowett first arrived at Blues as a fresh-faced young manager for whom the only direction was upward after they were thrashed 8-1 at home by Bournemouth.
He swiftly organised the defence with a stable, pragmatic 4-2-3-1 system reliant on the all-round ability of Clayton Donaldson to function as a target man and find the net. The turnaround was immediate.
During his two years he would attempt to evolve the team and did so reasonably well, recording two tenth-placed finishes but never quite managing to break through the financial glass ceiling.
When he was dismissed in December 2016 Blues were seventh, three points off third. Gianfranco Zola came in, lasted mere months and they ended up 19th escaping relegation on the final day. Rowett’s first stint was a triumph.
His second, though, was a poisoned chalice. He arrived in March 2024 after Blues had sacked John Eustace, with the team sixth, and watched Rooney destroy the campaign. Mowbray appeared to have steadied the ship but illness prematurely ended his tenure.
Rowett had eight games to stave off relegation and the players lacked the fight to accomplish it. He won three of those matches but many fans feel his tactical caution in relegation battles with Rotherham and Huddersfield meant Blues drew games they should have won. In the end they were relegated on the final day.
Quite frankly I observe so many parallels between Birmingham then and Leicester now, a malaise appears to have taken hold and the players don’t seem to possess the mental resilience to stay up.
Rowett should be capable of addressing the clean sheet situation but he’ll also need to harness the attacking talent at his disposal. I’d back him to keep City up because of players like Abdul Fatawu and Stephy Mavididi but also because West Brom and Blackburn have their own off-field issues.
Stoke City
Nathan Jones was telling a white lie last week after enduring 90 minutes of extremely loud, and occasionally quite dark, abuse from Stoke fans in the away end at Charlton. He responded with a volley back at full-time until making a hasty exit when confronted by towering Stoke coach Ryan Shawcross, writes Pete Smith, our Stoke City writer.
“Stoke fans gave me stick when I was there so I expect that,” said Jones. “I wouldn’t read too much into that, it’s part and parcel of it. They give me a little bit and I give them a little bit.”
Except that Stoke fans had backed Jones to the hilt through the thick and thin of an exhausting 10 months back in 2019. There was an incredible amount of patience and hope for him to make it work.
That certainly wasn’t the case for Gary Rowett, who had been the wrong man at the wrong time a year earlier. Rowett was poached from Derby County with a mission of steering Stoke to an immediate Premier League return, backed by an unprecedented Championship budget. They were runaway bookies’ favourites for promotion.
But it didn’t feel right from the outset. He undoubtedly faced a challenge with egos – some of the behaviour from expensive players who failed at Stoke was unforgivable – but it became evident that he wasn’t even connecting with some of the good characters. Plus, the quality of signings was dreadful: James McClean, Benik Afobe, Sam Clucas, Ryan Woods and Tom Ince still make fans shudder.
It would be fascinating, if depressing, to hear the unfiltered thoughts from him, the then technical director and the chief executive about their relationship behind the scenes as all this unfolded.
On the pitch, Stoke were demolished in an opening day humiliation by Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds and supporters were singing ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ by the fourth league game, a 3-0 home defeat to Wigan.
There was a 10-game unbeaten run leading up to Christmas but then the wheels fell off spectacularly. He made the blunder of turning on fans when they were chanting the name of Bojan Krkic, a beloved playmaker who was being frozen out. He limped on for a few more days before the axe swung.
His record since then against Stoke has been superb. He’s secured six wins and three draws in 11 games and there was a sense of familiar dread when it emerged that he’ll be in the away dugout this weekend.
But Stoke thumped his Oxford side 3-0 in November and a packed away end savoured that immensely. There was a loud, frequent chant about his style of football that is guaranteed another airing on Saturday.
“What am I going to say about Stoke fans?” he said at full-time. “It was the worst nine months of my entire footballing career but I’ve still been pretty complimentary about them since I left. Listen, I’m a big boy and I understand how football works. I don’t really think about Stoke an awful lot and if they still want to sing that, fantastic.”
For all that, I am convinced that Oxford’s chances of staying up were reduced considerably when he departed in December. I would be stunned if he didn’t make Leicester substantially more organised and keep them up fairly comfortably. But, and it’s genuinely nothing against Leicester, there would be plenty of people laughing in this part of the world if he didn’t.
Millwall
Gary Rowett played a substantial role in developing Millwall to where they stand today, even though he was unable to take that final step himself, writes Senior Sports Reporter and Lions supporter Dan Marsh.
Throughout his four years in charge, he transformed the club into perennial play-off contenders after expanding on the work done before him by Neil Harris. The football could be pragmatic at times, but it was effective and maximised the resources at his disposal.
For me, Rowett is a dependable, solid Championship manager; we consistently outperformed expectations under him which fostered a mentality shift where relegation no longer felt like a concern before or during campaigns. His capability to grind out points when circumstances grew tough proved invaluable.
It felt like the natural conclusion of an era when he did step away, with perhaps my one major critique being that a separation would have been more appropriate at the end of the previous season after a final day collapse v Blackburn cost us a play-off place.
He’s a polished operator, will win people over and, crucially, also understands his trade. As mentioned above, he can grind out points and isn’t hesitant to return to fundamentals when required. It might seem peculiar given that he was released by a relegation rival, but in light of Leicester’s current predicament, Rowett would have been my top selection to extract them from it.
Leicester’s squad on paper is significantly stronger than that of a team in a relegation battle and if anyone can get them accumulating points, it’ll be Rowett. Whether he’ll be a success or not long-term is another matter – but I suppose that’s not an immediate priority right now.
Jibrin
