Birmingham City’s Italian investment proved to be a nightmare:The Blues hired Gianfranco Zola in 2016, but his tenure was disastrous.
Birmingham City’s decision to fire John Eustace backfired, just as it did when they let go Gary Rowett in 2016.
Gianfranco Zola’s dismal tenure as manager led to the club’s relegation, which was only spared by Harry Redknapp’s late attempts.
The club’s gamble on Zola ended horribly, resulting in his departure and a race to stay in the Championship.
Earlier this season, Birmingham City took the rather contentious decision to remove John Eustace from his management duties.
According to CEO Garry Cook, the now-former Blues manager was fired after 15 months in command due to a “misalignment with the leadership of the Club”. This was despite the club’s reasonably excellent start to the season, which placed them sixth in the Championship rankings.
Wayne Rooney shortly joined and endured a difficult period before departing the club, with the club ranking 20th in the division, significantly lower than when he took over.
Blues chairman Tom Wagner recently recognized that removing Eustace at the time was a mistake.
Surprisingly, these incidents are not too dissimilar to those that occurred at the club in 2016, as we will detail below.
Back then, Birmingham City terminated current interim Blues manager Gary Rowett after two years in command.
Like Eustace, Rowett was fired with the Blues in a strong league position, sitting eighth and barely outside the play-offs at the time.
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