Rooney sacked by Birmingham after biggest cock-up of season ends in another iconic player failing

Wayne Rooney’s sacking followed a laughable 15-game disaster spell as manager after Birmingham City made the biggest cock-up of the season.

“I do not believe 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed. Personally, it will take me some time to get over this setback.”

In most circumstances, Rooney would be right to suggest that 13 weeks is not long enough to be judged as a manager. But in this case, it was more than enough to expose the Manchester United legend as an inexperienced boss who was way out of his depth at St Andrew’s.

A new owner’s first year at a football club is often a treacherous time; you only have to look at the examples of Newcastle United and Manchester City to see how smoothly (or not) this process can go.

But Birmingham City – who were taken over by US-based Shelby Companies Limited last July – were making great strides forward on and off the pitch at the start of this season.

After spending years festering towards the bottom of the Championship, the Blues looked set for a break-out season in 2023/24 after being a major winner coming out of the summer transfer window until the new decision-makers opted to make life difficult for themselves.

John Eustace – like many managers in similar situations before him – would have been overcome by hot sweats when Birmingham’s takeover was finalised as he would have known that his days in charge were numbered.

There are times when a post-takeover managerial change is understandable (Steve Bruce and Newcastle United, for example), but in Eustace’s case, it made no sense at all.

Birmingham could (and perhaps should) have been a League One team this season as their 2022/23 squad was arguably the worst in the Championship and Eustace worked wonders to keep them in the division.

The club’s summer recruitment was getting their supporters excited and certain onlookers were tipping them to mount a sustained push for promotion and Eustace was on course to live up to this billing as his side were sixth in the Championship in October.

Under Eustace, the Blues were rocketing upwards and fan optimism was as high as it’s been for many a year until an unnecessary spanner was thrown into the works.

As good a job as Eustace was doing, there was the feeling (like with Tony Mowbray at Sunderland) that his face did not fit the new Birmingham City model envisaged by their American owners and it would not be long before he was ousted.

Frustrating as it was to see Eustace unfairly lose his job, Birmingham would have been somewhat forgiven for their rash decision had they drafted in a clear upgrade to replace their popular departing manager.

But what Birmingham City supporters were served was a Rooney-shaped sh*t sandwich that only compounded their misery and added to their fury.

Depending on how generous you’re feeling, Rooney did a good-to-decent job in horrendous circumstances at Derby County before returning to MLS side DC United as manager.

While he could take positives from his spell at Derby County, his return to DC United was disastrous as his team finished bottom of the Eastern Conference as he only managed to win 14 of his 53 games in charge.

Yet Rooney – who never quite got the respect he deserved as a player while in England – is held in much greater esteem in the United States so it was hardly a surprise that Birmingham’s wet-behind-the-ears owners wanted him to lead the club into a new era.

Trusting their new toy with the supposed greatness of Rooney would have felt like a sure-fire route to success but those with more sense knew that this appointment was doomed to fail, especially following the poor fan reaction he received from the get-go.

Counting down the days until January and the summer so he could put his stamp on the squad, Rooney was not averse to calling out his Birmingham players and – according to The Telegraph – he ‘triggered frustration in the dressing room’ when he foolishly said he wanted to make 11 substations after a 3-1 home loss to Stoke City.

Rooney blindly made Birmingham play out from the back and refused to alter his ways despite it blatantly not working. After managing just two wins in 15 days, he was fortunate to last 83 days and his first comments on his exit reek of him being in denial.

The Birmingham fans and players did not take to him and the results were far from good enough as Rooney learned the hard way (like Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard before him) that he was not up to the job.

If it wasn’t for the career he had as a player, Rooney would have been nowhere near the Birmingham job when it opened up and he now faces a huge rebuild if he is to recover anything from what’s left of his flailing managerial reputation.

As for Birmingham, their new owners have at least been wise enough to part company with Rooney as they were only heading in one direction with him in charge.

But they now face a long process of earning back the trust of Birmingham supporters after their ownership got off to such a feel-good start.

With Tony Mowbray, Mark Warburton, Gary Rowett (or even Eustace) available, Birmingham’s under-fire owners need to play this manager appointment with a straight bat so they can escape this season without a relegation on their résumé.

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