Is Gary Rowett the key to Championship survival for Birmingham City?
As Birmingham City are nearing the fight at the pit of the championship, as they started the season so positively with a takeover, transfer spending and seemingly future plans, could it all be going wrong, or will they have the fight to turn things around?
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00:00 So, Charlie, on to Birmingham City. We've spoken multiple times about their inconsistency
00:09 throughout seasons and this season, for you covering it as well, has been an absolute
00:14 whirlwind with the managerial situation and now where they're sitting in the Championship,
00:20 it's an incredible fight down there to avoid the drop. It's really intensifying. What can
00:26 you tell us about it and how confident Blues are feeling? Is it starting to get worse as
00:31 the weeks go on because the results simply aren't there really?
00:35 Well, the performances are quite up and down, but the actual results themselves are constantly
00:41 down, it feels like, for Birmingham fans. They had a couple of wins against Sunderland
00:44 and Blackburn a number of weeks ago now, but that's five or six games ago, as we're speaking,
00:49 going into international break and that's really not good enough at all to be not winning
00:53 any games after that. And the fixtures have got easier, if anything. So the mood is definitely
00:58 very low at St Andrews and Nighthead Park. I think the lucky thing is there are so many
01:03 other teams in a similar position. You're talking from Sheffield Wednesday down to 23rd,
01:08 just quickly looking now, and up to Millwall and 16th. There's just a five point gap there.
01:12 You've got the likes of Blackburn, Plymouth, Stoke City, QPR, Huddersfield all in the mix
01:17 as well. And of course, Sheffield Wednesday, as I mentioned, rather united are already
01:22 well out of it. They're basically renegades already, unfortunately, for them. But I think
01:27 Blues only solace really there is that there are so many teams, as I say, and they have
01:31 got to fight. If they can get just one or two wins in the next few games, it might feel
01:36 like a very big uphill battle to get those. But then you start to see them being at the
01:40 top of that bunch and the confidence comes back. But certainly a very poor mood at the
01:44 moment. And I think they've already scored many goals, let alone get draws or wins. So
01:48 I can definitely understand it.
01:50 And just quickly on the managerial situation, obviously Tony Mowbray is currently out ill,
01:56 illness. Are there any actual proper considerations for an interim manager to come in and steady
02:03 the ship?
02:04 Yeah, the decision was made to have Mark Venus, Tony Mowbray's assistant in for the rest of
02:09 the season. There's a lot of fans now with the results going downhill since Mowbray stepped
02:14 back. The two wins that I was talking about against Sunderland and Blackburn were under
02:18 Mowbray. They've only got one or two points. I think it is since Mowbray stepped back.
02:23 It's really not big enough. You can understand the calls for a proper interim, get rid of
02:27 Mark Venus. It seems like the easy solution, but Mark Venus has worked with Mowbray for
02:31 20 odd years just in coaching. And before that, they were teammates at Ipswich. Mowbray
02:36 has a lot of confidence in him and even admitted during his unveiling that Mark Venus is the
02:41 man with the tactical ideas behind things. And they've done very well in the past. And
02:45 that's why Blues fans are so excited to have Mowbray here. So there's a lot of talk of,
02:49 will they just hold on to Mark Venus until the rest of the season or do they need a face
02:53 to boost him a little bit more? Rowan is that man that they've decided to bring in and I
02:58 think it will give them that boost.