Gary Rowett: Stoke City sack manager after just eight months in charge
Rowett leaves the bet365 Stadium with Stoke in the bottom half of the Championship table
Stoke City have sacked manager Gary Rowett with immediate effect, the Championship club have confirmed
Rowett was appointed by the bet365 Stadium club last May and leaves after just eight months in charge with Stoke in the bottom half of the second tier table.
A club statement read: "Stoke City have terminated the contract of manager Gary Rowett.
"Members of his immediate coaching staff have also left the bet365 Stadium.
"The Club would like to thank Gary and his staff for their efforts over the past eight months.
"A new managerial appointment will be made as swiftly as possible but in the meantime Rory Delap, Kevin Russell and Andy Quy will take charge of first-team affairs."
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Early contenders to succeed Rowett include David Moyes and Sam Allardyce, who are both reportedly in the running for the position.
Rowett was given the task of guiding Stoke back to an immediate return to the Premier League when appointed manager last summer. He was handed a large budget to aid him in his task, and big-money deals were completed for the likes of Tom Ince, Peter Etebo and Sam Clucas.
However, the former Derby boss has overseen just nine wins in 29 games in all competitions, and his fate was sealed when Stoke failed to make it past League One Shrewsbury in the FA Cup third round on Saturday; a 1-1 draw means a replay is on the cards, with the victor taking on Wolves in the fourth round.
Rowett's struggles at Stoke
Rowett guided Stoke to just nine wins out of a possible 29 since taking charge of Stoke. His win ratio with the Potters is the lowest recorded throughout his entire managerial career...
- Burton Albion (2012-2014): Win ratio of 44.4 per cent
- Birmingham City (2014-2016): Win ratio of 39.6 per cent
- Derby County (2017-2018): Win ratio of 43.3 per cent
- Stoke City (2018-2019): Win ratio of 31.0 per cent
Supporters have been calling for Rowett's dismissal over the past couple of months, but he insisted after the draw with Shrewsbury that his squad and coaching staff remained positive despite all the negativity around the club.
He said: "When there’s all sorts of stories and rumours, and chants from everywhere around the ground, what am I going to do? Sit down with my head in my hands and start crying? I’m going to stand on the sideline with my chest out and try and win a game of football.
"You can see the players out there. The likes of Benik Afobe have found it really difficult in recent weeks. There’s a lot of expectation on him and every time he touches the ball he finds there’s a lot of pressure from his own fans.
"It doesn’t help you to perform, but when you’re in that scenario you’ve got to run around and work hard and show that desperation in other ways because that’s the only thing that gets you out of it.
"We showed we are still fighting in the dressing room. We are still positive, whilst the rest of the world is very negative and we have to get through that.
"I wanted to win to silence some critics, to get through to the next round, to show a bit of pride and ultimately we didn’t quite get that, but we could have gone under and now we live to fight another day."