Rowett 4/1 to manage in the Prem next season after Birmingham axing

The recently departed Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett is 4/1 to be managing a Premier League team on the opening day of next season.

The Blues announced the surprise sacking on Wednesday afternoon, despite sitting a comfortable seventh in the Championship.

Changes behind the scenes are the early reasons for why the former Leicester City centre-half has left St Andrews, with Gianfranco Zola seemingly set to step in.

But after impressing in two and a half years at Burton Albion, before another solid spell in the Midlands, Rowett is unlikely to be without a job for long.

The Englishman has been linked with almost every job that’s become available in the top two tiers, and the bookies make it 8/1 Rowett is managing a Premier League outfit at some point later this season.

With Crystal Palace and West Ham each receiving endless speculation over the futures of Alan Pardew and Slaven Bilic respectively, Rowett is 12/1 to be the next permanent manager at either London outfit.

It’s 16/1 the 42-year-old succeeds the under-fire Bob Bradley at Swansea, while the bookies go 25s that Rowett makes a return to Leicester in place of Claudio Ranieri.

The Blues remain on the cusp of the play-offs, but such a seismic change at this stage of the season is unlikely to be beneficial.

Rowett’s final act in charge was to oversee a 2-1 win over Ipswich on Tuesday night, and Birmingham will kick off their new era with a tough clash at home to promotion hopefuls Brighton on Saturday evening as 13/5 shots.

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