Decision made by Birmingham City's old Chinese owners still defies belief | OneFootball

The former Blues boss was sacked in very controversial fashion in 2016 with the team 7th in the Championship.

The 2016/17 season was one that was filled with promise for Birmingham City, and under the guidance of Gary Rowett, Blues were showing themselves to be a side more than capable of competing for a play-off position.

The former Burton Albion manager had taken over the club in the 2014/15 campaign, and had stabalised them after a dramatic few years that had seen the West Midlands team bounce between the Premier League and Championship.

They came ever so close to relegation in May 2014, less than six months before Rowett had taken over at St. Andrew's, but thanks to Paul Caddis' 93rd minute equaliser against Bolton Wanderers, Blues had survived on the final day of the season.

Birmingham were transformed with the now 50-year-old at the helm, and despite such a positive start to his second full campaign in charge, a decision made in December 2016 changed everything.

Rowett's sacking was hugely damaging

The 2016/17 season was always going to be a hugely competitive one in the Championship. Brighton & Hove Albion, Leeds United, Newcastle United and Sheffield Wednesday were just a handful of clubs pushing for promotion to the Premier League, with Blues one of several surprise packages after the first few months.

Rowett had got his team playing extremely efficient football once again, and it was proving difficult to play against.

Birmingham lost just one of their first 11 matches, and had shown themselves to be a contender for a play-off spot. A 2-1 win over Brentford fired the team up to 4th in the table, and there was a lot of excitement building.

Two defeats in a row to Barnsley and Newcastle had threatened to derail their positive start, but another 2-1 win, this time against Ipswich Town, had got the West Midlanders back on track, or so they thought.

Bizarrely, just a day after that victory, it was announced that Rowett had been sacked after more than two years in charge at St. Andrew's. Their owners, Trillion Trophy Asia Limited, were not popular figures and this only added more kindling to the already out of control flame of anger that was aimed at them.

The now out-of-work manager later admitted that he wished that he had done a couple of things differently, but the decision was one that seemed truly harsh, and his replacement struggled.

Gianfranco Zola was a terrible appointment

It seemed as though the sacking of Rowett was pre-planned, and Birminghamhired former Chelsea star Gianfranco Zola as the man to take them forward and keep them in with a shout of a play-off place on the very same day.

However, results quickly dropped off. What had once been an extremely promising campaign was rapidly turning into a disaster, and nobody could foresee just how bad it would begin to get for the club.

Blues lost five of their next eight matches, drawing the other three, and it took nearly two months for the Italian to taste victory in the Championship.

The West Midlands club continued to freefall down the league table, going from play-off contenders to relegation threatened in a matter of weeks. Zola resigned from his position with just three games left in the season - perhaps an admission that he did not believe he had what it took to keep the team in the division.

Harry Redknapp took over for the final few weeks of the campaign, and despite losing to Aston Villa, he beat both Huddersfield Town and Bristol City to ensure survival on the very last day of the season.

The decision to sack Rowett is still, to this day, a terrible one and supporters will never forgive their former owners for the position that they put the club in.