In an effort to keep Birmingham City from facing relegation at St Andrew’s, interim manager Gary Rowett has returned to the team.
Additionally, Stoke City will be praying that if Rowett is successful in keeping Birmingham in the Championship, they do not end up as unintentional collateral damage.
After Stoke was relegated from the Premier League in 2018, they recruited Rowett, who gave them the goal of returning to the top flight as soon as possible. However, he was fired after only eight months, so it would be hilarious if he was now to demote his old team to the third division.
Following the granting of prolonged medical leave to Blues manager Tony Mowbray, Rowett was appointed by Birmingham’s American owners.
After replacing Wayne Rooney as manager of Southampton at St Andrews in January, the former manager took a temporary leave of absence to receive medical attention. He is expected to return in six to eight weeks.
This will free up Mowbray’s schedule until the beginning of preseason, allowing Rowett to rejoin the team he managed for two years from 2014 to 2016.
The 50-year-old left his position as manager of Derby County to take a job at Stoke, who had been demoted under Paul Lambert in May of 2018. They spent heavily that summer and were the pre-season favourites to return to the top division, but a 3-1 loss to Leeds United on the first day of the 2018–19 season threw doubt on their chances.
After winning just eight of the Potters’ 26 league games that season and facing criticism from the fan base, he was fired by the team in January 2019. They were now eight points out of a play-off spot in the Championship, in 14th position.
In the five years that have passed, Stoke has had difficulty replicating this position. With 41 points from 38 games, they are presently ranked 19th, while Birmingham is in 21st place with 39 points from the same number of games. With eight games left, Rowett takes over a Blues team that is just outside the bottom three on goal differential after leaving Millwall in October.
When the current international break ends on Good Friday, March 29, Stoke and Birmingham will play their next match. Stoke’s match against play-off contenders Hull City begins at 3 p.m., while Birmingham takes on relegation rivals QPR. This season, they have traded wins; in December, Stoke defeated St Andrew’s 3-1, but a month later, they suffered a 2-1 loss at the bet365 Stadium.
