Gianfranco Zola has suggested that Birmingham City paid a’very expensive price’ for sacking John Eustace. Eustace left St Andrew’s in October, following two home victories against Huddersfield Town and West Bromwich Albion, which put them in the top six in the early stages of the Championship season.
Since then, Blues have gone through a remarkable turnover of touch-line personnel: Wayne Rooney came and went, Steve Spooner filled the vacuum in the FA Cup, and Tony Mowbray gave new hope before it was revealed that he would have to take a medical leave of absence. His number two, Mark Venus, was unable to maintain his good form, thus Knighthead turned to former player and manager Gary Rowett.
Rowett was fired in December 2016 by former owners Trillion Trophy Asia, who appointed Zola as his successor. Similar themes emerged during the previous manager change, as well as at the start of this season, when Eustace was replaced by Rooney; at the time, the Blues were seventh, but Zola won only two of his 24 matches in command and left on Easter Monday in 2017.
Having previously worked with Eustace during the final stages of his playing career at Watford, Zola was perplexed and disappointed for his former captain when he learnt that he had been removed of his duties. Eustace has since taken a position with Blackburn Rovers.
“To be honest, the John Eustace situation gutted me because I thought it was unfair,” Zola told Simon Jordan. “By the way, John Eustace was my Watford teammate. He didn’t play much because of his injury, but he was an excellent captain. It was great having him even when he wasn’t playing. Great player, so I was disappointed when they did it, since he earned the job – and they paid a high price for it.”
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