I could be exactly what the club needs – Gary Rowett keen on Leicester stay

Gary Rowett confirmed he wants to remain as Leicester boss in League One next season after they signed off from the Championship with a 1-0 win away to Blackburn.

Stephy Mavidid’s 78th-minute strike secured only Rowett’s second win from 14 games in charge of the Foxes as he has been unable to save them from a second consecutive relegation, but the 52-year-old is eager to extend his stay.

“I’m like any manager, I see a fantastic opportunity here,” Rowett said. “I think there’s going to be some big decisions and it’s going to need someone, in my opinion, brave enough to make those decisions.

“The team needs to look very different. The culture needs to look very different. But it’s a great opportunity so of course I’d like that opportunity. I think what’s more important is less about me and more about the club getting it right because it’s a fabulous football club.

“I’ve enjoyed the 14 games. It’s been tinged with frustration and disappointment that we’ve actually played well in a lot of those games, lost four, shouldn’t have lost that, should have won a lot more, but it’s easy to say that.

“Of course I’d like the opportunity to rebuild this and I think I could be exactly what the club needs.”

The win moved Leicester on to 46 points, meaning they would have been safe but for their six-point deduction for breaching financial rules.

“I’ve not heard any of the players saying, ‘It’s all the club’s fault for the points’,” Rowett said. “I think they accepted it…I don’t think we can define our season on that.

“I think we should definitely have had more about us as a team to stay up by a lot more than that margin anyway.”

The future of Rowett’s opposite number in the Blackburn dugout, Michael O’Neill, is equally unclear, with Rovers keen to keep the man who has kept them up this season but needing to reach an agreement first to prise him out of his role as Northern Ireland boss.

They had secured their safety with a win at Sheffield United last time out and it was a good job too as they were wasteful in front of goal in what O’Neill described as a “real end-of-season affair”.

“I said to the players to finish the season well, to do everything to win the game and we haven’t managed to do that,” O’Neill said. “I think we let ourselves down a little bit with the first-half performance, but there were positives to take certainly in the second half.

“I’m just pleased the club got away from the situation that it was in. I don’t really look at these things relating to me. I’ve been brought in to do this job. It was challenging.

“There’s no doubt we had a lot of challenges in the group, a lot of injuries and times when the squad was really stressed.

“But I found a club where people stuck together. There’s a lot of really good people in the group. A lot of people clearly love the club and wanted to progress and that’s very, very evident to me.”