BCFC coach, Gary Rowett After Re-uniting with his Right hand man, Also make decision to depart on a 3 months…
Gary Rowett is back with a man he regards as ‘simply exceptional’ in his line of work after helping Birmingham City through these last eight games of yet another difficult Championship season. Rowett originally started working with Joe Carnall in late 2014, during his first stint as Blues’ manager.
Then, Carnall, who was in his second tenure at Blues after leaving as head of performance analysis to briefly join Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest before coming back to St Andrew’s just before Rowett was appointed, had assumed his previous position. After Rowett was fired in December 2016, he outlasted him and departed Blues to rejoin him at Derby County in early
Carnall then followed Rowett to Stoke City, and then on to Millwall in 2019. He held that role, of first-team technical coach, until the summer of 2022 when he decided to step away from the job as he considered his young family and the strenuous commuting from the Midlands to the capital. Rowett did, maybe reluctantly, give Carnall his blessing to depart, such was the working relationship the pair enjoyed.
The strange thing about football is that last year, Craig Gardner welcomed Carnall and Frank McParland back to the team as the Blues looked to improve their recruiting department in an effort to expand their reach. Carnall returned to the team in February of last year, this time as head scout. In order to fill Tony Mowbray’s void, Rowett, who left Millwall earlier in the season with the consent of all parties, has now returned to Blues via the well-traveled route.
It’s a reunion between the manager and a man he has spoken highly of in the past, and it’s obvious that Blues should value Rowett’s work, even though his time back at the club will be limited and may not necessarily overlap with Carnall’s as he gets ready for the summer transfer window.
After Carnall left Millwall last year, Rowett told the South London Press, “He is someone I’ve trusted for a long, long time.” “We’ve shared an apartment together for the past three years. Charlie is a small kid that he and Soph had a few years ago, and I immediately thought, “This could be tough now,” because he is
