Wayne Rooney llamó a la leyenda deportiva estadounidense, que se inspiró en el hat-trick del Manchester United de Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney spent a short spell in charge of Birmingham City two seasons ago.

Wayne Rooney lasted just a few months in the dugout at Birmingham City before being given his marching orders.

The decision to sack John Eustace and replace him with Rooney was deemed controversial at the time. Birmingham had started the season poorly, but results worsened under United’s record goalscorer.

Birmingham continued to slip down the Championship table, leading to Rooney getting sacked 83 days later. The club were relegated to League One later that year.

They have since bounced back to the Championship from League One.

Meanwhile, Rooney has since worked at Plymouth Argyle, although that didn’t go to plan for the former striker.

Tom Brady slates Wayne Rooney’s work ethic

The ill-fated appointment of Rooney had its backlash.

Former NFL star Tom Brady is a co-owner at Birmingham City, so he got to see Rooney’s management up close.

Brady became part-owner of Birmingham City in August 2023 following the acquisition of Knighthead Capital. He took a minority 3.3% stake in the club as a result.

Like other executives at Birmingham City, Brady faced criticism for the sacking of Eustace and the appointment of Rooney, but they’ve endured better results on the pitch since then.

In a new Amazon Prime documentary, Brady reveals what he made of Rooney’s stint in charge.

It’s not something future employers will want to hear.

“I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic,” Brady tells business manager Ben Rawitz, as quoted by The Sun.

Rawitz replies that Rooney “comes across as lackadaisical” following a visit to the club’s training ground.

At one point of the documentary, Brady confronts Rooney himself, asking: “What’s the difference between [American football] and soccer? Nothing. I treated practice like it was the Super Bowl. Put pressure on them, make them run for everything.”

Rooney has been enjoying his summer off this year, which won’t come as a surprise to Brady or anyone at Birmingham City. He has been in the US following United on tour as well as Northern Ireland, watching his son, Kai, perform in the Milk Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo inspiration

After initially retiring from the NFL, Brady returned and later revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo inspired him to make the decision.

Brady was invited to Old Trafford as a special guest in 2022 when he met Ronaldo and watched him score a hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.

He announced his return to NFL days after watching Ronaldo prove age is only a number at the highest level in football.

Brady admired Ronaldo’s work ethic, but thinks differently of Rooney after working with him in a coaching capacity.

Brady reflects on decision to sack Rooney

As results worsened under Rooney, Brady decided to take ownership of the situation.

Their decision to sack Rooney has since been justified as they returned to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Now, Birmingham City can start planning towards a return to the top flight.

Brady recently explained the decision to sack Rooney in an interview with the Men In Blazers YouTube channel: “Our first season was a bit of a challenge and I think we have to take ownership of every decision that we made, and I think there’s other times, where we realise okay, well we made the decision at the time and learned from it and moved on and we found someone that really fits the values of what Tom Wagner and I really believe. We found Chris Davies through an extensive interview process. He’s been absolutely phenomenal in his role, and we have high expectations for him as we continue through this season.

“Every year as you make decisions you feel like you’re making the right decision but I think it’s really important, in the decision-making process, when you realise that ‘Okay, we need to make a change based on production’, we did it, and unfortunately we got relegated in our first year but we had a great season last year but listen, the reality of our first and second year mean nothing at this point.”