In returning to Birmingham City, in coming to their aid for these final eight games of another challenging Championship season, Gary Rowett has been reunited with a man he considers to be 'absolutely incredible' at his profession. It was in Rowett's first spell in charge of Blues, back in late 2014, when he first began working with Joe Carnall.
Then, Carnall - himself in his second spell at Blues having left as the head of performance analysis before embarking on swift spells with Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United, and then returning to St Andrew's shortly before Rowett was appointed - had taken up his old role. He outstayed Rowett, who was sacked in December 2016, but left Blues to reunite with him at Derby County in early 2017.
Carnall then followed Rowett to Stoke City, and then on to Millwall in 2019. He held that role, of first-team technical coach, until the summer of 2022 when he decided to step away from the job as he considered his young family and the strenuous commuting from the Midlands to the capital. Rowett did, maybe reluctantly, give Carnall his blessing to depart, such was the working relationship the pair enjoyed.
It's funny how football works, then, because Craig Gardner last year brought Carnall, along with Frank McParland, back to the club as Blues sought to address their recruitment department in order to cast their nets further. Carnall re-joined as the club's chief scout in February of last year. Rowett, who left Millwall by mutual consent earlier in the season, has also now trodden the familiar path back to Blues now, to bridge the gap in Tony Mowbray's absence.
READ: Gary Rowett perfect for Birmingham City's 'wicked' situation and pundits agree
READ: John Ruddy sets Birmingham City a challenge so that Knighthead can 'crack on'
While Rowett's time back at the club will be limited, and perhaps his spell won't necessarily intertwine as much with Carnall's, as he prepares for what the summer transfer window looks like, it's a reunion all the same between the manager and a figure who he has spoken extremely high of previously, and clearly somebody who Blues should value the work of.
“He is someone I’ve trusted for a long, long time,” Rowett told the South London Press of Carnall's departure from Millwall last year. “I’ve been flat-mates with him for the last three years. He had a little boy, Charlie, a couple of years ago and as soon as him and Soph had him I thought ‘this could be tough now’ because he is travelling away from a young family. He has managed really well with it, but at some point I knew he’d want to be back home.
“He’s someone I’m going to miss incredibly, both as a friend and as a member of staff, because he is brilliant at what he does. That’s why we’ve worked together so well and for so long. I can ask him to do something and it is done exactly how I envisaged it would be done.
“I spent three months with Joe out of work [after leaving Stoke] and we worked on the principles of how we were going to play, were we going to play a back five? If so, what would that look like? What do the training sessions look like? We have spent so much time together working on these things. He was my running partner and got my times a lot lower because I was having to keep up with him. Now you’ll see a sad, old manager running the streets by himself.
“He’s got a background in analysis but he has sort of expanded that into a lot of tactical work and principles that we’ve developed at the club. Sometimes you have to accept that people have to do things for personal reasons and you have to respect that. I’ll still remain in close contact. I think there’s an opportunity for him to do some stuff remotely but he is so committed I don’t think he is the sort who just wants to do little bits. He’d want to do it properly.
“It’s a brave decision to do what’s right for him and his family. He’s like me, he’s got a three-hour commute every time he wants to go home and that’s not easy for anyone who has got a young family. You can do it for six months or a year but once you’re nearly three years in then it starts to take its toll a little bit. I think I’d have done the same myself if the circumstances had been the same.
“If he was telling me he was joining another club then I might not have been quite so happy, but he kept on for longer than I thought. From a professional aspect he has been absolutely incredible for me. I could genuinely say he is my right-hand man and the closest person I’ve worked with over the period of time.
“It will be a bit of a challenge but I endorse his decision. There will be hundreds of people out there wanting to employ him because there are very few people I’ve met in football as good as he is.”
