Birmingham City owner underlines club’s ambition with new manager appointment

BIRMINGHAM City FC’s new owner has wasted little time stamping its mark on the club with the sacking of its manager and the appointment of a high profile Premier League legend as his replacement.

Trillion Trophy Asia took over at St Andrew’s in October after finally getting the clearance from receivers acting for former club owner, Hong Kong-based Birmingham International Holdings.

A little less than two months later it has underlined its ambitions for the club by sacking the relatively-successful management team headed by Gary Rowett and replacing them with former Chelsea superstar Gianfranco Zola and his own team.

Zola is one of the most recognised faces in English football and is still revered at Stamford Bridge.

His management achievements have so far failed to scale the heights of his playing career.

The 50-year-old began his managerial career with West Ham United in 2008 before being sacked in 2010 and had a brief spell in charge at Watford between July 2012 until his resignation in December 2013. Since then he has had spells in charge of clubs in his native Italy and as coach of Qatar team, Al-Arabi until he was sacked by both.

By English standards, Gary Rowett was arguably the better manager. His time at Burton Albion underlined his potential and he had raised Birmingham City from the depths of the Championship into a respectable outfit – all on a shoestring budget and set against the turmoil of BIH collapse and the imprisonment of former owner Carson Yeung.

Nevertheless, his stock his high and he is unlikely to be out of work for long.

In a club statement, Trillion Trophy said it was delighted by the new appointment.

They said they had identified the former Italian international as the ideal man to lead the club in a new direction; ie back to the Premier League.

Joining Zola at St Andrew’s are Pierluigi Casiraghi and Gabriele Cioffi as First Team Coaches, Kevin Hitchcock (Goalkeeper Coach) and Sebastiano Porcu (Video Analyst).

Both he and his backroom team have all agreed two-and-a-half-year contracts.

Club director Panos Pavlakis said: “We are delighted to welcome Gianfranco and his backroom team to the club.

“His pedigree, philosophy and ambition fits with what we would like to achieve as we move in a new direction.

“Gianfranco has a wealth of top-level experience as both manager and player and we are extremely excited about his appointment.”