Opinion: How Valuable Is Rowett?

Just for a second I would like you to cast your mind back to what I like to refer to as the ‘dark age.’ The miserable whimper to the Lee Clark reign whereby we had Tyler Blackett as our best defender and just about managed to scrape our points tally to a measly total that kept our Championship status. We needed change. A change of players and a change of system.

At that time there were calls for McLeish to come back and manage the mighty Blues’ despite his link up with Villa. Many saw him as the man for the job because he has done it before and proven that he is the man who can play the Birmingham way. Little did we know that the man on the radar was a former Birmingham player in the shape of Gary Rowett who had managed at Burton Albion when we became interested in acquiring his skills.

At the time, I must say, I was a bit hesitant. When former players come back and manage the club, it very rarely seems to pay off. King Kenny at Liverpool for the second spell was an example of that. But Rowett seemed to tackle this better than anyone I have seen. He understood the club and it’s fans. He seemed to be able to handle the expectations of both the fans and the board whilst also playing a style of football that won us points.

At times, I must say, we do play very defensively. Rowett seems a cautious manager to me. Someone who will park the bus and then break against the better teams and against certain teams such as Derby and Hull this has worked. But we have found it hard to break down the likes of Brentford who really we should be beating comfortably. I would like to see us more fluid in attack and more pacy to try and exploit any weakness in the oppositions defence.

However, Rowett has many successful qualities. The first is that he is a good man manager so it seems. He gets the best out of players whom were sold by other clubs who could not get the same performances from them. Spector has been around a few clubs but has excelled under Rowett and I think that even Robbo has come on as a player despite his veteran status. So that is certainly a good thing.

He also has the entire set up of the youth ranks working together. They all play in the same style and are taught the same way. This is noticeable as I watch a lot of youth games and it is great to see that we are instilling the same mentality into every player. It is also good as it makes the transition from the youth team to the first team more easy to manage for the players as it is a massive step up. However, under Rowett I would like to see us bring through more youth talent into the first team rather than buying players in or keeping with the same older players.

Overall, I want him to stay amidst speculation that he might leave for Hull City. He has ambitions to be promoted with Birmingham and I feel that with a few additions to the team, and a more attacking approach, he could achieve that with us.