Gary Rowett makes an honest admission while reflecting on his time and being sacked by Oxford United in an chat with the Second Tier podcast.
He said that his overall tenure was enjoyable, praised the club as a “really nice” one with good people and supportive fans.
He gave his first impressions upon arriving, then spoke of keeping the club up in the 2024/25 season, then struggled for 2025/26, being sacked just before Christmas, which he found a little surprising but understood and accepted that clubs must “roll the dice” when survival is at stake.
Interviewer: “Gary, let’s talk about your time at Oxford. How would you assess your time there overall?”
Gary: “Yeah, look, I think when I went in to Oxford, you know, the remit was clear. We needed to use your experience to stay in the league. You know, it was always about staying in the league in that first season. It was always super important to try and at least have a chance of establishing themselves as a championship club, which obviously we know is not easy and it’s not, you know, not a big club by certainly Championship levels. And obviously hadn’t been in that division for a long, long time.
“So, you know, helping the team stay up, helping create that sort of, that change in results, that change in fortune when we went in, I think was the first and the most important remit. Of course, this season was the same remit, essentially, which wasn’t quite as easy. But yeah, certainly looking back on my time, I really enjoyed it. It’s a really good club. It’s a really nice club. There’s a lot of good people there. The fans were super supportive, you know, even though it’s not a club with 30,000 fans turning up every week because of the stadium, which I only sort of learned having joined the club.
“You know, I turned up the first game at about half past 12, and about 12 o’clock for a three o’clock kick-off. And I was like, why is nobody here? There’s nobody around. Usually, you know, you go to Derby or you go to Millwall or whatever, there’s probably 50 people outside chatting to you, and there was nobody there. And it was only then I realised that the fans don’t actually want to turn up at the stadium and give money to obviously the previous owners.
“So yeah, it was strange at first, but the atmosphere inside was excellent for what it is for the games that we had. You know, there were some fantastic, fantastic results, performances. And yeah, this season was this season. It was always going to be a different challenge. But last season certainly was. I put it down as one of the biggest achievements I’ve had, you know, in terms of turning a team around and getting those results.”
Interviewer: “Yeah. Well, absolutely. Listen, we’ll both say you did a fantastic job last season, because Oxford were in a pretty dire state when you came in. They were second from bottom, having lost eight of their last 10. But they stayed up relatively comfortably in the end, I think, with a game to spare. So how did you manage to turn things around there?”
Gary: “Yeah, I think you always, you know, you have to sort of collate the story before you go in. So the more people you can talk to, you know, what were some of the challenges? What was the feeling around the dressing room? You know, I’ve always, in some ways, it might have inhibited me as a Championship manager, but the fact I’ve been doing it for so long, maybe not, I don’t know. But maybe the perception of what I do and how I manage. But at the same time, I’ve never been a manager or a head coach where this is my style and I’ll play this regardless of the players and the circumstances. You know, I’ll always look at the story and the circumstances and try and find the right solution and piece it together.
“So I think going in, it was very much a case of, you know, when most teams are struggling towards the end before a manager leaves, you know, often the team has changed all the time, the formation has changed all the time, you know, that’s kind of a narrative normally.
“So I think you tend to go in, be very, very clear, you know, almost overly clear on what’s going to happen and how you’re going to do it to give the players the idea of, you know, it’s a clear pathway. You know, we’ve just got to work hard and listen and do whatever, not what we’re told to do, but do essentially what we think is the right thing.
“So clear on a style, clear on a system. The system was always around trying to get the best out of the players. You know, we were very strong attacking down one side and we’re very weak defensively down the other side. So I had to protect one side and I could open up on the other side. So that dictated the style. We can push one fullback forward, the other fullback stays at home and is a little bit closer to the centre-back. So, you know, Cameron Brannigan, let Cammy have a bit of a free reign really, and Vaulks would sit and hold the fort and be that defensive midfielder more often than not. So the style was dictated and the formation was always dictated around the strengths of the players.
“And then it was up to me to try and almost give the players that feeling that, you know, we can achieve. And the first thing I said to them, and I’ve done this previous clubs, the first thing I said to them is, listen, I’m not looking at the team underneath us. I’m looking at all the teams above us. You know, you try to change that psychological mindset of, you know, when I went in, everyone was always, you know, we’d watch a team on the telly at a 12.30 kick off before a three o’clock game. And everybody in the room, including the sort of, you know, the senior management were relieved if a team below didn’t win. You know, whereas I was the opposite. I was like, I don’t care about that. You know, we just, we just win games and we just keep reeling people in above us. And I think psychologically it gave the players a little bit of something different to grab hold of, a bit of a different ambition.
“So that was, that’s how I’ve always done it. Maybe that’s sometimes why it’s difficult to keep doing that in those circumstances. And I think sometimes it’s, it’s easier initially to do that. And then of course, the division has a horrible way of levelling out your squad, whatever that looks like. And, you know, then it becomes far more difficult, but that’s always been my initial, you know, lots of clarity, quite direct, very positive, you know, a little bit of fun around the place as well, because I think that’s sometimes what you miss when you’re losing games, you know, and that’s what the game is about really, isn’t it? You know, in those initial, initial few matches.”
Interviewer: “It was quite a volatile relegation running because we had the likes of Derby, Luton all looking like they were down and out at certain points. So at what point last season did you think to yourself, that’s it, we’re staying up now?”
Gary: “Wow. Not, not at any point, if I’m being honest.”
Interviewer: “Even when you were officially safe on the final day.”
Gary: “I’ll tell you a little story now. So I remember, so myself and myself and Mark Sale went in there. So, so, you know, as, as often happens now, you don’t tend to be able to take three or four staff in, you know, you probably take one member of staff in. So me and Sale worked together for a long time. And we, I think it was before the Sunderland game. So, so we, we obviously we had an incredible start. I mean, it was a ridiculous start, you know, in some ways it restored my faith in, in football, because I had quite a tough end of the season when Millwall, the season, a couple of seasons before where we, we lost to Blackburn, we were 3-1 up and we were in the playoffs on the last day and we ended up getting knocked out. And that was a horrendous, horrendous last game to finish on. Then Birmingham, which I know we’ll come on to, I’m sure, but where, you know, where sort of regardless of how many games, you know, it was relegation.
“And so, you know, there’s something probably with me needed a little bit of positivity in some ways. So, and of course we started, I think we won five and drew four of the first nine games. I mean, it was quite ridiculous. Our form over nine games was far better than, for example, Leeds, which, which with an Oxford team, I don’t know quite how we did that, but it was, it was a classic case of a little bit of momentum. Anyway, we got to, and then we had a poor period.
“So we got to the Sunderland game and I think we needed to win against Sunderland. We felt as though if we won against Sunderland, that would be, that would be a safe, but I’ll be honest, going into that game, I wasn’t confident. And myself and Sale went back down on the Wednesday night, ready for Thursday training. And then Sale said, come on, we’re probably being too serious. Why don’t we just have a couple of, couple of drinks on the way down just to, just to relax and maybe take it less seriously. So we got to Birmingham, we travelled from Derbyshire, we got to Birmingham station and Sale had done a lot of scouting in his time. He said, listen, there’s a Weatherspoons around the corner. We’re about 45 minutes between trains. And I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never been in a Weatherspoons, I’m just ashamed to say I’ve never been in a Weatherspoons before. So I walked in, we had a couple of drinks and I’m sat looking around myself thinking, oh my God, this is, this is unbelievable, this place. Why is it so busy? So anyway, got back on the train, got back down to Oxford. We had a couple more drinks.
“We turned up on the Thursday morning, not quite as sharp as we probably would do and maybe prepared, prepared okay, but maybe not as well as normal. And we played brilliantly. So that goes to, and the moral of the story is the less I do, the better my team, the better my team is. Yeah, it was a good example, but going down there that day, there was a little bit of me thinking, I’m not sure, I’m not sure where we are.
“So the honest truth is, I don’t think up until that Sunderland game, we knew or we were confident because it just, I think there was a Luton, I can’t remember whether it was Luton, Derby or, I can’t remember one of the games, I think it was Luton actually were playing someone at 12.30 before the Sunderland game. And there was a mistake by the keeper and one of the teams scored late on. It was a ridiculous goal. It was a literally giveaway goal. And straight away, we were back in the, we were back in the mix again. It felt like every time we won or got a result, somebody else won. It was, it was quite a bizarre end to the season. Derby were winning every, you know, virtually every game. You know, as often happens, those teams all start picking up just as you think you’re looking like you might be safe. You just kept getting dragged in. So yeah, it was a bit of a roller coaster end to the season, I’ll be honest.”
Interviewer: “Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought the recipe for championship survival is a couple of drinks and spoons.”
Gary: “Now, you know, I’m not, I’m not sure if Daniel Farke tried that last season. I’ll have to ask him.”
Interviewer: “Might be doing it with Leeds this season in the Premier League, you never know. But going on to this season, obviously things haven’t gone quite as well. Going into this campaign, Oxford have not been higher than 19th at any point, but still the opinion from us and plenty of other Championship fans is that they had a chance of staying up with you in charge, a significant chance of staying up with you in charge. So are you surprised when you were dismissed just before Christmas?”
Gary: “Yeah, a little bit, but I think, you know, when you’ve been in this job for 14 years, you know that if you don’t get results at some point, any club that’s desperate to stay in the Championship, and Oxford are no different, and it’s the reason why they brought me in in the first place, at some point maybe has to roll the dice.
“So as a head coach, as it was at Oxford, you accept there’s going to be a point of time in where you either get the backing and someone says, we think you’re the right person to keep us up, or they think we have to take a gamble and the results maybe dictate that. And so I don’t think any manager will ever be too upset when it happens, because you know the game, you know the jeopardy of the role that we all were all in, you know.
“So look, did I think I could keep Oxford up? Of course. You know, there were reasons why we had such a poor start to the season. If you looked after that, we were pretty much on course, maybe just a bit below that. So of course we needed an upturn, but yeah, the season hadn’t gone quite as we hoped it would. But I think that’s the division, I think if you look at the division this season, you know, it’s quite, I know every season everyone says the same thing, but for 14 years people have said to me, oh this is the strongest the Championship’s ever been. I think it’s different this year. I think if you look at it, last year Leeds and Burnley finished with 100 points. You know, nobody looks like they’re a 100 point team this year. Everyone looks like they’re a Sunderland, if you like, and that’s not being disrespectful because they’ve been incredible, but you know, 76, 78 points, maybe 80 points. It looks like there’s probably 15 teams that could finish on that, but nobody at the moment looks to me like they’re going to really struggle, apart from Sheff Wednesday, of course, because of the points deduction. But no one looks like they’re going to run away with it, and I think that’s the division. I think the middle pack is far stronger this season than it’s ever been, and it’s far more even.”
Interviewer: “Psychologically, do you have to, are you always thinking I’m only sort of three bad results away from the sack or four games away from the sack? Is that something that enters your mind at all when you are in amongst it coaching, managing?”
Gary: “No, you don’t. No, I’ll be honest with you. All you think about is, you know, trying to get the next result. You never ever think about the sack, you know, like, okay, every now and then you might sit there and you think, okay, you know, if we don’t win today, maybe we’re going to be under a little bit more pressure than usual.
“And you also sense that with a crowd, of course, you know, it’s like anything, isn’t it? You know, any set of fans that spend their hard-earned money traveling around the country with their team, if you’re not winning games at some point, there’s going to be a little bit of disquiet, you know, and that’s normal. That’s perfectly, you know, I’ve been to games and I’ve seen other managers getting exactly the same thing. That’s normal. That’s expected. So, yeah, I think your focus really is always on how do we win the next game? How can we go on to run?
“I think the challenge with Oxford really was, I mean, the best example is, you know, we beat Ipswich at home in front of the Sky cameras, performed really, really well against a very good, very well coached Kieran McKenna side. And then we lost, and again, no disrespect, then we lost to Swansea about three days later and just never reached anywhere near the same heights. And I think that was the frustration, really. So I think that was more the mindset, how do we change this?”
Interviewer: “I think one of my big takeaways from your dismissal was that it happened just two days before Christmas. It wasn’t very Christmassy, was it?”
Gary: “Well, it wasn’t, but if you’re going to get the sack, you’d rather get a sack before Christmas than just after, you know, because it’s like anything, isn’t it? If you think it’s coming at some point, you know, but the problem with the Championship is you’re never more than a couple of games away from turning that around and changing that around.
“But no, it was pretty amicable. I remember chatting to Ed, I had a really good relationship with everyone at the club in fairness, you know, all of the sort of the hierarchy. But I remember chatting to Ed and I walked into his office that morning and, you know, I was fine. I gave him a big hug. I was fine. I was fine with it all. I could sort of sense it maybe. And like you say, people have jobs to do and they have to do what they’ve got to do. You know, there’s certainly no hard feelings from my perspective. I genuinely hope that Oxford can turn it around because like I said, it’s a really nice club. It’s got such potential with a location, with the new stadium on the, I’ll say, not too distant horizon. I suppose a few years in football terms is not that far away. You know, there is a lot of potential there.”
Interviewer: “You mentioned it a second ago, but you believe that if you were given the chance, you would have kept Oxford up this season, do you?”
Gary: “Yeah, look, you know, the only thing I can say is, you know, and this is not me sort of championing my own career, but if I look at how many points I’ve had per game over, you know, a hell of a lot of games now, you know, nearly 500 games in the Championship. So of course, I’m going to be confident that I can find the solution to turn it around. It’s never going to be easy.
“I think if you look at a Championship this year, a lot of clubs have increased their budgets. A lot of clubs have spent a lot of money. You know, that gulf is getting bigger and bigger. If you’re a team that’s come up from League One and you’re trying to bridge that gap, you know, it’s really difficult to do if you can’t bridge it. If you’re not a Wrexham and you can’t bridge it very, very quickly, it’s hard to, you know, it’s hard to find anything other than very small margins to get your team winning.
“So it’s like, I’m not sitting here saying, you know, I shouldn’t have been sacked. I’m sitting here saying, of course, I felt as though I could have got the results, but that doesn’t mean to say I would have got the results. You know, I felt as though I’d get the results of Birmingham. I did think I got the results of Birmingham in the eight game spell, but everyone else got better results, unfortunately. So yeah, it is what it is.”
Interviewer: “And you spoke about budgets there, obviously Oxford always in, it’s always, they’re always fighting an uphill battle compared to some of the budgets Championship clubs have. But what did you make of their transfer business over the summer? Only seven players were brought in, five of which were on loan. Were you expecting more than that?”
Gary: “I don’t know if I was expecting more. I mean, look, you know, clubs, clubs work in very different ways now, don’t they? I think if you look around the whole of football, everywhere is very different, you know, as a sort of head coach, you’re just a part of that process.
“And I think that in some ways, I don’t think that’s the wrong thing to do. If you look across Europe, successfully, clubs have had an idea, had a plan, had what they think is an ideal structure. And they followed that for years, maybe a style of play even, you know, to go with how their club historically maybe has looked.
“You know, you look at somewhere like Derby County, you know, you look at that sort of Derby way, maybe a style, an idea of football, you know, in some ways that should be followed. There should be something around that. And I think you get success by doing that more often.
“So I think most clubs follow a similar strategy. In the summer, you know, of course, you’re always going to want more as a head coach, but you also understand the parameters of any club. You also understand what the club’s capable of doing.
“I think we made some good signings. I mean, if you look at someone like Brian De Keersmaecker, you know, he’s been very, very good so far in a Championship. I think probably suffered in terms of, you know, the team not playing as well to help him. I think if he was in a slightly more successful team, you’d see someone who was capable of being a top six Championship player easily. So I thought we brought in some very good players. You know, young Will Lankshear had a poor loan at West Brom, you know, has come in and scored six goals so far. Actually, you can deem that to be a success.
“So I think there’s always going to be scenarios where as a head coach, you want a little bit more, but I felt as though the windows that we had were good windows, you know, were windows where we signed some good players. Some did well, some did not so well. That’s the nature of any Championship club recruiting, I think.
Interviewer: “What would you have done differently this season if you had the chance to do it over again? Maybe a couple of trips to Spoons pre-away games for a couple of reasons.”
Gary: “Yeah, maybe should have took the players to Spoons. Yeah, not rode the lion in Indonesia. That was meant to be good luck, but unfortunately it didn’t bring me good luck. That was a low point. That was a low point of my career. That’s been sent to me by about a million people, all friends of mine with laughy emojis afterwards. But yeah, that was meant to be, that was a cultural experience I couldn’t turn down otherwise I’d have shamed the whole of Indonesia.
“So, yeah, what would I have done differently? Do you know what, in some ways, perhaps, yeah, I mean, there were certain things. Look, I think, you know, the preparation leading into the season, I understand every club has to do whatever they think is right. If I’m an owner and I’m spending millions and millions of pounds on a football club, I’m going to do whatever I want to do or whether I think is right.
“I don’t think our preparation was fantastic leading into the season for different reasons, which I won’t go into, but I think that’s, you know, it’s sort of quite well documented.
“Maybe in some ways, I think we tried, because of last season, what we did last season, it was quite interesting. I had a meeting with the players about eight games to go, and actually for once, the players were actually saying to me, look, we just need to keep it simple. We think we are what we are. We need to be a bit more direct. We need to go and win games of football. And we need to be very, very simple in what we do.
“I think we started the season trying to actually be a little bit more expansive, trying to play a slightly different style. Maybe when I look back, maybe just being what we were good at, you know, if I look at some, and I don’t mean this as a criticism, if I look at, if I look at say a Wrexham and like a Derby and maybe a Millwall to a lesser degree, I think those, and you would argue if you’re a fan that maybe it’s different week in, week out. But it looks to me like they’ve at least just gone down the route of, you know, being what they are, you know, being quite physical, being quite aggressive in their style, whether that’s successful, whether that continues to be successful, I don’t know.
“But I think maybe we sort of got caught in between a little bit in the quest to try and be a little bit nicer on the eye. You know, maybe that’s my fault. Maybe, maybe that’s a little bit of the club’s fault. But yeah, probably if I look back, the best way of, if I look blankly at stay in the division, doesn’t matter how, forget what anybody thinks, forget about the fan’s perception.
“You know, if I did that, then maybe, you know, I would, I would have perhaps gone, you know, stronger, bigger, quicker, harder to play against. But I don’t think that’s what the game’s about, is it sometimes you want to try and be a little bit different and evolve. And, you know, it’s quite difficult to do that with a relatively sort of low budget in the division.”
Interviewer: “Oxford have now named your successor, which is Matt Bloomfield, putting on your pundit hat, obviously, Matt Bloomfield was at Luton and Wycombe before that. How do you think you’ll get on coming in at Oxford?”
Gary: “Yeah, I’m sure that, I’m sure that, you know, it’s a difficult, you know, I suppose, going into, going into the sort of season that’s remaining, you know, you probably need someone who’s had that experience, you know, locally. He’s done, he did an excellent job at Wycombe.
“It’s quite difficult for me to judge another manager, you know, it’s quite difficult to do that having left so soon, you know, like I said, I hope that, you know, probably needed someone. If you look at the cycle of managers, often clubs will go a little bit different to the previous one. So probably needed someone maybe a little bit younger, less experienced, thinks about things in a different way, but, but maybe still can work with a similar, similar group of players. So, you know, I don’t know if that’s a thought process.
“So, so yeah, listen, I wish, I wish him all the best. It’s like I said, it’s a good club. There’s good staff there, really good staff there, really talented staff there to work with. It’s not an easy job in the position that Oxford are in.”
You can listen to so much more of the interview by clicking on the video at the top of the article.