Former Everton, Charlton and Derby man who was proven right by Joe Royal leaves EFL role
Everton paid £200,000 for the defender when he was a teenager.
Rowett spent four years in the hot seat at the Den and went close to guiding the club to the Championship play-offs on two occasions. But with Millwall sitting 15th in the table, a change of approach has been decided.
Rowett joined Everton in March 1994 from Cambridge United for a fee of £200,000. However, then a teenager, the defender struggled to make a first-team impact at Goodison Park and managed only four Premier League appearances.
Via a loan spell at Blackpool, he left for Derby County a year later before going on to represent Birmingham City, Leicester City, Charlton Athletic and Burton Albion. As a manager, he returned to Birmingham, Derby County and Stoke City before being appointed Wolves chief in 2019.
In an interview with Everton's match-day programme in April 2022, Rowett told how Goodison hero Joe Royal’s frank words motivated him for the rest of his career. He said: “I didn’t show that desperation to be a footballer. As annoyed as I was about what Joe said, he was probably right.
“Those words motivated me for the rest of my career. I had to find ways to summon that extra aggression, I wasn’t naturally that way inclined. I played against Joe many years later and he told me he’d tried to sign me for another club. It was nice he saw the change.”