After their disastrous experience with Wayne Rooney it seems Birmingham City's American bosses have come to their senses with what appears to be a wise appointment in Tony Mowbray a seasoned manager with a steady if not spectacular career.
The Yorkshireman has a wealth of managerial experience and in the last 15 years has been at the helm at Celtic, Middlesbrough, Coventry City, Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland.
Mowbray, 60, had become available after he was sacked by Sunderland in December with the Black Cats ninth in the table. Many Sunderland fans felt this was harsh on the popular manager known as "Mogga'" who had led the club to the play-offs last season where they succumbed to Luton Town.
This season had been going OK but an unsatisfactory run of results with just two wins in nine games was enough for the Sunderland hierarchy to pull the plug on Mowbray. He was replaced by Michael Beale who had been sacked by Scottish club Rangers.
Mowbray arrives at St Andrew's with the owners still recovering from their poor decision-making. It was all self-inflicted. First came the needless sacking of former manager John Eustace with the club in a handy sixth place, their highest position in years. Eustace had also steered the Blues to safety when relegation was a distinct possibility.
Birmingham's owners which include NFL quarterback legend Tom Brady as a minority shareholder, clearly wanted a "name" personality in charge of their team and Rooney fit the bill. They wanted a bit of "razzle dazzle" in their club. But they got neither razzle nor dazzle as the club plunged down the table to 20th place in Rooney's ill-fated reign.
Right from the start there were plenty of warnings for the owners from their own fans for whom Rooney was not a popular choice. Among fan reactions were: "We have pressed the self-destruct button again" and "Can't help but feel Birmingham will regret this."
Just what lies in store for Rooney is hard to predict. He's got plenty of money so there is no need to rush into anything. As the season progresses plenty more gaffers will be biting the dust and there is just a chance that there might be an opening for him.
But it would be a brave club owner to take him on at the present time. The Birmingham fiasco did not help Rooney's managerial reputation at all and you can be sure the media will be quick to pounce if he was to land another job and it doesn't go well.
Rooney, who lost nine of his 15 matches in charge, felt he was not given enough time at Birmingham. "I do not think that 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed," he complained. He was probably right but he could not produce the "no fear" football that had been promised by Birmingham CEO Garry Cook.
Rooney did not help himself with public comments about his players. After the loss to Stoke City on Boxing Day he commented: "Clearly you wish you could have 11 substitutes as I could have changed all 11 players at half-time." That's not the greatest way to improve team spirit.
The sacking clearly hurt Rooney's pride and he admitted " it will take me some time to get over this setback."
As for Mowbray his first two games are both at home, against Swansea City today and Hull City in midweek. The Blues fans will be praying for positive results as no doubt will "Mogga", not to mention Brady who is not used to losing.