In the sterile, data-driven and overanalysed landscape of modern football, the appointment of Gary Rowett at Leicester City feels like a corporate pivot and a potentially visceral homecoming. While Rowett was born in Bromsgrove and has never donned the partisan mask of a lifelong supporter, his arrival at King Power Stadium carries a weight of sincerity that transcends geography.
The former Fox is a man tethered to the club by the formative sweat of appearing for, and investing in, the outfit as a player. The 51-year-old understands the architecture of the place, the peculiar hum of Filbert Way. Not to mention the haunting spectre of a side that has fallen too far, too fast.
Not so much Leicester City's saviour - but possibly right man, right place, right time
​Rowett does not deal in the hollow platitudes and polish of the typical pundit or head coach. Instead, he speaks with the quiet urgency of a custodian who recognised that the badge represents more than a line on a balance sheet.
"Let’s show what it is to be a proud member of Leicester City Football Club, whether that’s a fan or a player."Gary Rowett - lcfc.com
The rhetoric spoken since taking the helm has been steeped in a demand for collective identity. A plea to abandon the vanity of individual statistics in favour of a shared survival instinct.
Rowett said that recently; his words cutting through the tension of a relegation scrap and aiming at the modern baller psyche. He is not a son of the soil, yet he possesses the rare, weathered perspective of one who has seen the club at its most successful and robust and now returns to find it in its most fragile state.
"​You have to look at your mate standing next to you; and you need him to help you out."Rowett - The Guardian
This connection is the intangible asset that could ultimately salvage their Championship status. The astute cosch is not merely managing a crisis: he is protecting a personal history. Attachment and sentimentality are ill-advised in sport - though devotion is not.