When I wrote my last article, we’d suffered back to back defeats and we hadn’t yet beaten Ipswich as we turned the tide in our favour once again, yet I still didn’t even begin to think we might be discussing the sacking of Gary Rowett at this stage of the season, a week or so later! Not only GR, but his entire, ex-Blues players coaching staff and chief scout to boot!
Something deeply unsettling about the way it was handled, and you can’t deny it was important to get a new manager in, swiftly, but the sheer speed with which Zola seemingly arrived suggests he may well have been looked at while Rowett was still in post, which certainly doesn’t fit my way of doing business, even if you believe some of the ‘in the know’ fans who claim that Rowett was actually a Fulham manager for five minutes. Truth in the rumour or not, Blues obviously tempted him to stay with the improved contract, so shouldn’t then be seeking to sack him for the seeming ‘disloyalty’. When he was about to manage Fulham would have been a good time to do that…unless of course Zola was unavailable at that time. We can only speculate, I guess! There are also rumours he may have been tempted to join QPR, but – again – he didn’t ACTUALLY join QPR, so why sack him?
Gianfranco Zola – West Ham – 28.75% wins, Watford – 44% wins, Caligari – 20% wins, Al-Arabi – 38.46% wins. Led Watford to a play-off final in his first season, before leaving when the club was 13th the following season. Recently managed Al-Arabi in Qatar to 8th in a league of 14 before being relieved of his duties.
Gary Rowett – Burton Albion – 44.4% wins Birmingham City – 39.6% wins
What can you say? On paper, Rowett’s achievements look marginally better, certainly in this country compared to Zola’s abroad, and even slightly in this country overall. Zola may shade things when you consider he has more Premier League experience, but he has an average of 1.25 years of managerial tenure, so why have we offered him a 2.5 year contract? TTA really have gambled on this one, haven’t they? If we don’t beat Brighton (which can by no means be a given), then the fans won’t take too kindly to the decision. Indeed, they’ve also shown their overall distaste for it on social media, and in interviews with the press. Win tomorrow – of course – and everything’s rosy.
We have 9 points remaining, before 2016 is up. This would only get us to a top four spot at best.
Preferred keeper at this stage? According to the stats, it’s clearly Kuszczak, though he hasn’t kept a clean sheet (like a Villa fan’s protest) in four! Defence? Shotton, Grounds, Spector and Morrison. Midfield? Maghoma, Davis, Kieftenbeld and Cotterill with an attack of Donaldson and Adams. Jutkiewicz may well see his chance now, following ‘The Don’s’ ankle injury, not to mention his dearth of goals in open play this season.
Getting back to basics looked to have worked, at 2-0 up against Ipswich, but a controversially disallowed goal could have seen Ipswich equalising late on, though the jury is out as to whether the goal should have stood or not anyway. Zola will have his work cut out for him, and it will be VERY interesting to see how he shuffles Rowett’s pack, as many are already predicting Zola will make a better job of managing Fabbrini. He’s certainly a prodigious talent who should be utilised where possible, but what if he really HAS been injured? What if his attitude to training isn’t there? What if Zola decides to release him on a free? All these questions could be answered by February 1st!
Brighton are presently six places ahead of us, in second, eleven points ahead of us, with a huge 21 goal difference advantage! Brighton are unbeaten in the league since September 10th, having won nine of their last thirteen matches. They thrashed Norwich 5-0 at home, but our ‘saving grace’ is the fact they haven’t won any away matches particularly convincingly.
With no ex-Blues on the pitch, keep an eye out for number 19 – ELVIS 🙂 You may also recognise Chris Hughton, an excellent manager in his time at Blues…welcome back Chris…so long Gary…and welcome to the club Gianfranco…
I’m going to predict a nervy 1-1 draw as our team try to shrug off the disappointment of losing ‘their’ gaffer and try to impress ‘their new’ gaffer…goal from Jutkiewicz…
Win this and we could rise to the dizzy heights of fourth. If we lose, we could drop as low as eleventh.
Enjoy the Match and Keep Right On!
Russell Dempsey
My dentist told me earlier that Zola has already enquired about taking loftus-cheek on loan from chelski. He’s a bit of a gossip to be honest and I do worry about patient- dentist confidentiality but hey if he’s right I’ll buy him 10 litres of the best mouth wash!