Gary Rowett has no regrets about returning to Birmingham City – but he is disappointed that ‘finished business is relegation’.
Rowett returned to Blues on an interim basis in March with an eight-game mission to keep the club in the Championship. He collected 11 points, including a final day win over Norwich City at St Andrew’s, but it wasn’t enough to keep Blues up.
Final day wins for Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers mean Blues will start next season in League One for the first time 29 years. Rowett will now hand over the managerial reins.
Asked if this is the end of his Blues story, Rowett said: “That was the situation originally, it was never anything else. It was: ‘Can you come in for eight games and can you try and save us?’
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“And like I’ve said many times before, this is not just me saying it now, most people who I spoke to said, ‘Why would you do that? Why would you go in for eight games and put yourself in that position?’
“It just felt like the right thing to do. I can’t really explain it. I think the connection I had with the club when I was first here, it’s hard to lose that. You can feel that with different clubs but Birmingham City is one that when I left, it always felt like there might be an opportunity to come back, and that’s not from a melancholy perspective, it felt like unfinished business.
“I’m disappointed that the finished business is relegation. I didn’t want that or expect it. I wanted to put myself in that position and if it’s me that has to stand here now, so be it. We didn’t quite do enough over the period to stay in the division.”
