Echoes of Zola and Rowett? You bet!

AFTER Birmingham City's new owners ruthlessly sacked a perfectly competent manager, they released a statement lavishing praise on his glitzy successor.

"His pedigree, philosophy and ambition fits with what we would like to achieve as we move in a new direction," it read. "We are extremely excited about his appointment." But the victim wasn't John Eustace and the inbound superstar wasn't Wayne Rooney.

It was Gianfranco Zola, who arrived at St Andrew's just six hours after the mystifying dismissal of Gary Rowett in December 2016.

No Bluenose needs to be reminded how that worked out but, for the record, it was a catastrophe.

Birmingham, seventh when Rowett was canned, won just twice in 24 games under Zola and sank into a relegation dogfight. His replacement, Harry Redknapp, smashed every piggy bank in the building, sowing the seeds for years of neglect under Trillion Trophy Asia that were only ended when Knight head Capital Management acquired the club this summer.

Nobody is suggesting that Tom Wagner's US-based group are even half as inept as their Chinese predecessors, but the parallels are unavoidable.