🚨 EXCLUSIVE — “14 Games to Live or Die: The Haunting Record That Will Decide Leicester’s Fate (And It’s Sending Chills Down the King Power)”

What history says will happen in Gary Rowett’s 14 Leicester City matches
A look at Rowett’s first 14 matches at his other Championship clubs, whether he was able to make an immediate impact, and what that might mean for City’s campaign

Gary Rowett only has 14 games to rescue Leicester City, and so will need to hit the ground running.

A total of 50 points tends to be the benchmark for Championship survival, and so City need 18 more over the next couple of months to get there.

Can Rowett accomplish it? We’ve examined his short-term influence across his previous Championship clubs to find out.

Birmingham

Rowett’s initial stint at Birmingham, and his first experience in the Championship, is arguably his most fruitful in terms of instant impact.

In 2014 he took over a side sitting 23rd in the table and one that had lost their previous game 8-0. He kicked things off with a goalless draw away at third-placed Wolves and then overcame top-of-the-table Watford in his second outing.

That established the pattern for the early part of his Birmingham tenure, with seven victories, including a 6-1 demolition of Reading, and six clean sheets in total across those first 14 games.

Match this record with City and they will be comfortably safe.

Derby

Rowett’s opening 14 games at Derby covered two seasons. He inherited a side in mid-table and kept them there over the final nine fixtures of the 16-17 campaign.

Then, the Rams had a mid-table start to the following season. It wasn’t until the autumn and winter of that term that Derby truly pushed on, finishing in the play-offs that year.

Across those 14 games, Rowett collected a respectable 22 points, which should be sufficient for City if repeated at the King Power Stadium.

Stoke

This is the sole occasion Rowett’s begun a season with a club, rather than arriving midway through, and it’s the poorest he’s performed.

Placed in charge of recently-relegated Stoke, Rowett endured a poor start, failing to win any of his first four matches, and with chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ after a 3-0 loss to Wigan.

It improved slightly, but not enough to lift Stoke out of the bottom half, and not enough to prevent Rowett from losing his job in the winter.

If Rowett was only to gather 17 points from City’s next 14 games, it might not quite be sufficient for survival.

Millwall

Millwall was the club where Rowett spent the most time, and he was perhaps able to do so because he made such a strong start.

Placed in charge of a side in the bottom half, just two defeats from the opening 14 games and a total of 26 points had Millwall firmly in the top half by the end of that run.

He commenced his tenure with the Lions with a 2-0 win over Stoke. City will be hoping for an exact repeat this weekend.

Birmingham

Rowett was brought into St Andrew’s for the final eight games of the 23-24 season with Tony Mowbray taking leave, and with Birmingham outside the relegation zone on goal difference at the time.

The manager lost three of his first four, but then finished with a four-game unbeaten run. Eleven points from eight matches is not poor. In fact, it was the 13th best record in the division in that period.

But nearly all of the other clubs at the bottom performed better. Birmingham were relegated on the final day.

While the record wasn’t too bad, Rowett had failed to accomplish the task he was brought in to do.

Oxford

Unfancied Oxford were 23rd when Rowett took charge and on an eight-game winless run. The transformation was immediate.

Oxford won their first three games under Rowett and eventually reached eight games unbeaten at the start of his tenure.

Results were then hard to come by before a late-season flourish, but that very solid start established the groundwork for Oxford’s survival. Nineteen points may just about be sufficient for City.