Glasgow Rangers were linked with Gary Rowett in March and must surely regret not appointing him when they had the chance.
With Pedro Caixinha’s tenure at Rangers unlikely to be remembered fondly at all by the Gers faithful, it is certainly not the biggest claim to suggest that the Light Blues appointed the wrong man when they decided to turn to the Portuguese.
But in hindsight, it is simply baffling that Rangers did not appoint a manager who confirmed that he had held talks with the Scottish Premiership side about potentially succeeding Mark Warburton.
In comments reported by BBC Sport, Gary Rowett confirmed that he had met Rangers about taking the job, and described the opportunity speak to the Gers hierarchy as a compliment, which just hints that he would have certainly been interested in taking the role had it been offered to him.
Rowett has done a fantastic job at every club that he has managed so far. He built on the foundations at Burton Albion and put more in place that helped them on their journey to the Championship, turned Birmingham’s fortunes around – with the full scale of the job he did only being fully appreciated as his successors failed to replicate his achievements – and has made a very bright start to life at Derby.
While managing in the Scottish top flight is a different task, Rowett’s managerial record suggests that he would have been a brilliant appointment had the board offered him the job when he was out of work.
Of course, with Rowett doing well at Pride Park currently, there is no chance that he would be available as they look for Caixinha’s successor. But perhaps, if they had decided to appoint Rowett when he seemed interested earlier in the year, they would be in a much better position right now.
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