Manager closes in on job to set up reunion with the 'great talent' Birmingham City sold
Gary Rowett is closing in on the Oxford United job after waiting patiently for his next job in football after leaving Birmingham City for a third time. Rowett returned for his second stint as a manager - having also played for the club during his career - towards the end of last season following the diagnosis of his predecessor Tony Mowbray.
Despite Rowett's efforts, Blues' long-held Championship status couldn't be salvaged and he left with the club preparing for a new dawn in League One. Since, you've been likely to see the former Derby and Millwall boss working as a pundit, but always with the intention of returning to management when the correct opportunity presented itself.
Over the weekend, the U's pulled the trigger on Des Buckingham's tenure; he had guided the club to the Championship in the spring in place of Blues, but after a run of one win in 16 the board decided that they'd give a more experienced head a go in the hope that they could maintain their second tier status for another year. Rowett is the firm favourite to take over amid reports he has held advanced talks at the Kassam Stadium.
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The Oxford squad was well attended to in the summer; they added the likes of Matt Phillips, Will Vaulks, Louie Sibley and former Blues loanee Przemyslaw Placheta, as well as a host of young loanees from Premier League clubs. It was claimed that Oxford, though, broke their transfer record to secure the signing of Siriki Dembele from Blues.
He had only spent a single year at St Andrew's, having scored on his debut at Swansea City and netting braces in the win over Huddersfield and the defeat to Blackburn, but Dembele's season rather fizzled out - certain in front of goal, and also in terms of minutes played. Those opportunities didn't increase when Rowett took over the reins from Mark Venus, either.
The Ivorian was often left on the bench or limited to a small amount of minutes from the bench in games managed by Rowett as he sought to drag Blues away from the bottom three. Indeed he cited the talent Dembele undeniably had but outlined his demands for that to be married with a work-rate to match. The pair are likely to be reunited now at Oxford.
“He was one that trained really well today, that is probably the best I have seen him train," Rowett told us in April, after resuming managerial duties towards the end of last season. "Siriki is like everyone else, I have to make decisions based on I need to know what I’m going to get when players get out onto the pitch. I’ve seen him over the years, he is such a talented player.
"I think when he matches that with the energy and the workrate and the determination then he could be almost unstoppable in this division. It’s making sure we get that. If I’m not sure then I’m always going to go with someone who I see every day doing that, but he’s been fine. There are players we’ve had to leave out so far who are really good players. There’s players we’ve had to leave out that have actually trained really well.
"If I came into a group of 20 players and all 20 stayed fit, it would be absolutely fantastic, all 20 could be in the squad and involved, but I’ve inherited a group of 24, 25 players and all of those players think they should be in the starting line-up. Unfortunately, a few are going to be disappointed. He’s one of those. A great talent but at this moment we need to make sure everybody is doing the right things for that talent to come in.”
