Chris Dunlavy
A FRESH TAKE ON FOOTBALL
IT IS ironic in the extreme that a board who demanded “no fear football” are now absolutely s****ing themselves. Why else would Birmingham reappoint Gary Rowett?
The 50-year-old is a seasoned Championship operator who is eminently capable of saving the club’s skin. Objectively, it’s a wise appointment. But when a modern, ambitious new owner turns to a divisive figure who was sacked eight years ago, it’s obvious that desperation has set in.
Birmingham can’t win, can’t score and have barely strung two passes together since Tony Mowbray was forced to step down for health reasons last month. Unless something changes, they are going down.
This would be another irony, of course. Birmingham have spent a decade staving off relegation, beholden to incompetent owners who either failed to pay the bills, ended up in jail, took out Wonga loans or contrived other inventive ways to empty the club’s bank account. It’s a miracle they didn’t go bust.
Last summer’s megabucks takeover, led by hedge fund supremo Tom Wagner and his celebrity sidekick Tom Brady, was supposed to signal a long-awaited resurrection. Relegation, a feat that proved beyond even the most negligent of their predecessors, would be grimly farcical.
Tumbling out of the Championship would reflect horrendously on everybody involved and potentially set the project back years. That is why – despite the embarrassing optics – Birmingham aimed the bat-signal in Rowett’s direction.
Should he succeed, it will be a relief, not a victory. This is not how Wagner, Brady or the club’s giddy CEO Garry Cook envisaged their glorious entry to the Championship. And if they do get another crack next year, a reality check is essential.
From day one, Birmingham’s owners have sought to run before they could walk. We’ve heard about the club’s “unlimited potential”. The ambition to create a “football powerhouse”. Plans for a sprawling Sports Quarter in the city centre and how social media will be used Was the current Blackburn boss punished for failing to drink the Kool-Aid, Blues have now recruited a figure from planning for a glorious distant future, the to engage a worldwide audience.
