New Derby boss Gary Rowett not worried about club's managerial history
Tuesday 14 March 2017 15:43, UK
Gary Rowett insists he is not concerned about the run of managerial sackings at Derby County and is relishing the opportunity of attempting to lead the club back to the Premier League.
Rowett was confirmed as the Rams new manager on Tuesday following the sacking of Steve McClaren at the weekend, signing a deal until the end of 2018/19 season.
The 43-year-old, who spent three years at Derby as a player between 1995 and 1998, also became the club's fifth permanent manager in less than two years.
Rowett had been out of work since being sacked as Birmingham City manager in December, with the club seventh in the Sky Bet Championship.
When asked whether he felt worried about the amount of managerial sackings at Derby prior to his arrival, Rowett said: "No, I don't think so. Before in my previous job, people said it was 'the impossible job'. I like a challenge, I embrace it.
"I don't expect anything to be easy, but I think it's a really exciting opportunity. When you've seen this club playing in the Premier League, at the levels it has been at previously, there's a lot of work to get back to that but it's a really exciting opportunity.
"I understand what's gone on previously, but that's not really my concern. My concern is how we're going to move things."
Rowett was dismissed as manager of Birmingham less than three months after the club had been taken over by Chinese firm Trillion Trophy Asia.
Despite being on the verge of the play-off places, Rowett was replaced by Gianfranco Zola, who has subsequently overseen a dreadful run of form that has seen Birmingham drop to 17th place.
Rowett admits he was relieved to have met Derby chairman Mel Morris and chief executive Sam Rush, having not had any face-to-face contact with the new ownership at St Andrew's.
"I never met the owners at Birmingham, I've met Mel and that's a start," he said. "That's important for me, that's important at any club, and I think the information the owner gets off a manager is vital.
"That communication line is vital, myself, Mel and Sam have sat down and been really specific about what we think the club needs.
"I've said I'm a pretty honest guy and been quite frank in the meetings we've had. We're all pretty aware of what we need to do."
Rowett will be joined at Derby by the same backroom team he had at Birmingham, with Kevin Summerfield as assistant manager, Mark Sale as first-team coach, Kevin Poole as goalkeeping coach and Joe Carnall as head of performance analysis.
His first match in charge will be against local rivals Nottingham Forest, who appointed former Rangers boss Mark Warburton as their new manager on Tuesday.
Derby currently sit in 10th place in the Championship on 52 points, 10 behind Sheffield Wednesday in the final play-off spot.
"I'm not going to say we've got nine games just to bed things in, we want to win games as quickly as we can," Rowett said.
"If that takes a week, a month, whatever then we'll try to get there. In terms of redevelopment programme, we've got a lot of talented players.
"We need to find the right balance for this division. It's something really important, and I think I've got an angle on what's required. It's an open book for any of the players to try and impress us."
