Fact File: The Making Of Gary Rowett

Following the announcement that Gary Rowett has taken up the reins as Derby County’s new manager, dcfc.co.uk takes a look back at the 43-year-old’s pathway that forged his managerial career…

John Beck, Joe Royle, Sam Allardyce, Jim Smith and Alan Curbishley. They are just some of the names of managers Gary Rowett had the privilege of playing under during his career.With that, it is also fair to say that managerial grounding was certainly unique, old school and insightful, particularly for someone like Rowett, who always harboured ambitions of a coaching career post-playing.First up was John Beck, the often much-maligned Machiavellian tactician, at Cambridge United where he came through the youth set-up and soggy balls, sanded corners, blast furnace heating and painting the away dressing room pink was a regular feature of his time as a player at the Abbey Stadium.
Apparently, it worked wonders. Rowett was part of the side that achieved a fifth-place finish in the Second Division – still the club’s best ever season finish in their history – whilst he also helped the U’s achieve a quarter-final place in the FA Cup.Rowett holds Beck in the highest regards for instilling virtues that allowed him to go on and forge a career at the summit of the game and beyond.His form under him earned him a move to Everton and although he only stayed at Goodison Park for a year, he was taking tips from Royle along the way.There was a loan spell at Blackpool in between, where he played 17 games under the guidance of former Bolton Wanderers, Newcastle United, West Ham United and England boss, Sam Allardyce, this time.On the move in 1995, Rowett was involved in a part-exchange deal that saw him move to Derby County and Craig Short move the other way to Merseyside.Jim Smith was the manager at that time and Rowett has always spoken of the former Rams boss being the ‘master’ of man-management – another valuable learning experience as he continued to pick up tricks of the trade.
Under Smith, the defender helped Derby achieve promotion, as runners up, to the Premier League at the end of his first season, in which he played 35 league games and played a similar amount of matches over the following two years, 35 and 32 in the league respectively, as the club established themselves in the top flight.Trevor Francis and Birmingham City was next on the horizon in 1998. Rowett and the Blues achieved a play-off finish in successive seasons, but they narrowly missed out on promotion.Then it was back to the Premier League. Leicester City was his next stop and Peter Taylor was the next man he sponged ideas and methods off over a two-year spell, which eventually ended with the Foxes’ relegation.Rowett remained in the top flight, however, and he linked up with Charlton Athletic for another two-year spell in which he was able to work with Alan Curbishley as the end of his playing career – in professional football at least – came into sight.All of the lessons he took from the above managers have been put into practise effectively since.His first step was to secure Burton Albion’s safety as caretaker manager, alongside Kevin Poole, and from there he just took the Brewers forward.
Successive play-off finishes were secured, although Burton missed out on promotion to League 1 on both occasions – the second of which saw them miss out after a 1-0 defeat to Fleetwood Town in the play-off final in 2014.The following season saw Rowett’s good work continue as he guided the Brewers to top spot in the fourth tier. Interest was growing in his services and after turning down the chance to take up the reins at Blackpool, Birmingham City came calling.Just outside the relegation zone at the time of his arrival, he guided the Blues to a tenth-place finish in his first year, achieving the same finish the following year as he continued to make great waves in the managerial game.In the play-off mix in his third season at St Andrew’s, Rowett had steered Birmingham well into the play-off picture against all the odds and departed with the club sitting seventh – outside the coveted top six on goal difference.And so begins the next chapter of Rowett’s promising management career.

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