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Gianfranco Zola admits Birmingham City regrets

Former Birmingham City manager Gianfranco Zola admits that his experience with the club was "very hard to take".

Gianfranco Zola has admitted that his ill-fated spell in charge of Birmingham City last season was "very hard to take".

The Italian was installed at St Andrew's in mid-December following the surprise sacking of Gary Rowett, who had left the club seventh in the Championship table - outside of the playoff places on goal difference alone.

Zola went on to record just two wins from his 24 games in charge before he was axed, leaving Brum to fight a relegation battle and only securing their safety on the final day of the season under the stewardship of Harry Redknapp.

"I went into that job with a lot of passion, with a lot of enthusiasm and obviously the way things went, it was very hard to take," Zola told talkSPORT.

"I went into a difficult situation. I was asked to change a few things, actually I was asked to change a lot of things, but unfortunately for me not everybody wanted things to change, and that wasn't easy.

"It is what it is sometimes. Football is difficult and you have to face the reality. I think in this case I have to take the responsibility that I should have faced the reality a little bit earlier than I did.

"Now, I think I will take a little bit of time off to reconsider a lot of things and then I will see if I can face another challenge with the same freshness and with more ideas."

Prior to his time at Birmingham, Zola had managerial stints at Watford, West Ham United and Cagliari.

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Neil Wilkes
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QPR manager Harry Redknapp in the dugout during the match against Arsenal on May 4, 2013
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TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Birmingham CityBirmingham38278365263989
2Wrexham40239856322478
3Wycombe WanderersWycombe392112665362975
4Charlton AthleticCharlton402191055361972
5Stockport CountyStockport402011958362271
6Bolton WanderersBolton39196146157463
7Reading391711115550562
8Huddersfield TownHuddersfield391871452391361
9Blackpool4015151062511160
10Leyton Orient391851655401559
11Barnsley40159165457-354
12Lincoln CityLincoln401411155446853
13Stevenage391310163542-749
14Peterborough UnitedPeterborough39139176166-548
15Rotherham UnitedRotherham39139174449-548
16Exeter CityExeter39139174254-1248
17Mansfield TownMansfield39138184654-847
18Wigan AthleticWigan381111163438-444
19Northampton TownNorthampton401013173859-2143
20Bristol Rovers40126224165-2442
21Burton Albion39912184156-1539
22Crawley TownCrawley4099224775-2836
23Cambridge UnitedCambridge40711223965-2632
24Shrewsbury TownShrewsbury3978243566-3129


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