Gary Rowett has backed Steve Bruce as the right appointment for Aston Villa but warned his city rival the club will expect promotion for the amount of money spent on transfers.
The Birmingham manager raised the pressure on his opposite number ahead of Saturday’s second city derby by insisting Villa owner Tony Xia will be ‘disappointed’ if the squad assembled fails to at least challenge the play-offs.
Villa spent £50million on new players during the summer window and have a team the envy of the Championship, including the second tier’s most expensive player ever in £15m Jonathan Kodjia.