Rowett takes five Derby staff to Stoke
Left to right: Carolan, Carnall, Sale, Rowett, Davidson, Quy, Phillips and Delap
Written by Simon Austin — June 27, 2018
NEW Stoke boss Gary Rowett has taken five of his key Derby County lieutenants with him to the Potteries - and added St Johnstone assistant manager Callum Davidson.
Rowett replaced Paul Lambert at the relegated club last month and has assembled a core of coaches who helped take Derby to the Championship play-offs last season.
Rory Delap, Kevin Phillips, Mark Sale and Davidson, who had been assistant at St Johnstone since June 2013, join as first-team coaches.
Dave Carolan, who had been at Derby since February 2017, will be Head of Performance. The highly-experienced practitioner is embarking on his 21st consecutive season in pro football.
Joe Carnall, who also worked with Rowett at Birmingham City, will be Head of Tactical Insights. As TGG reported last month, the experienced analyst works very closely with Rowett.
The 44-year-old manager has decided to have position-specific coaches, meaning Davidson will be responsible for the defenders, Delap for the midfielders and Phillips for the strikers.
Jim Henry (Head of Performance) and Stuart Taylor (first-team coach) have exited Stoke along with Lambert, while and Kevin Russell (first-team coach) moves down to work with the Under-18s. Goalkeeping coach Andy Quy has been retained by Rowett, however.
“When I joined the club I highlighted which people would be able to come across with me and who would suit Stoke City and then I also had to think about where I could add a specific skill set to move us forward,” Rowett said.
“It was a very easy decision in some ways in bringing Mark, Dave and Joe in straight away. I worked with Kev at Derby and felt he brought a great deal to the strikers and was really, really good at what he did.
“I also felt there was a gap where we wanted to do something a little bit different and that’s where Callum comes in. He has been a friend of mine for a long time, since we played together at Leicester, and whenever we speak we talk about football."
Davidson was part of Scotland’s backroom team under Gordon Strachan last year and Rowett added: “The fact that he was earmarked for involvement with the Scotland set-up speaks volumes and I spoke to a few people about his coaching ability and felt he would be a really interesting one to bring in and freshen things up.
“Rory will work predominately with the first team but because of his affinity with the club he will dip down to help with the development of the U23s and U18s.
"I think it’s a really good balance. All the guys we have brought in are first and foremost very good at their jobs but they are also passionate about bettering themselves.”
Assistant manager Kevin Summerfield has left Derby, but has not followed Rowett to Stoke. New Rams boss Frank Lampard is now set to make a raft of appointments to replace the staff who have left.
Follow TGG for updates.
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