Currently sitting 6th in the Championship and off the back of a derby win against West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City has announced the departure of manager John Eustace.
The move comes at a shocking time considering the Blues’ start to the season, however, with Eustace’s department now confirmed, former Premier League and England legend Wayne Rooney is expected to be the new man in charge.
With talks ongoing over the former Derby County coach, Rooney was most recently manager at MLS side D.C. United, where he left his role as head coach by mutual consent after missing out on the MLS Cup playoffs.
Wayne Rooney’s Experience
While Rooney’s playing career needs no introduction, the former Everton product had 884 appearances for his club and country and is widely renowned as one of the greatest English strikers ever. With so much experience playing at the top level, Rooney began his managerial career when he was a player/manager for Derby in 2020.
Taking over the Rams, who were bottom of the Championship at the time, the former striker soon took the managerial role up full-time and saved Derby from relegation. Going into his first full season in charge, Derby entered administration at the start of the campaign and was handed a 12-point deduction. A tricky season to handle, Rooney and Derby were unable to avoid relegation this time round, and the 37-year-old shorty resigned from his role after the season.
Making the move across the pond to D.C. United, similar to the Rams, Rooney took charge midseason and struggled to turn around a bad team. Following another disappointing season that saw the Washington D.C.-based team miss out on playoffs, Rooney left his role as manager with a 26% win rate percentage.
Where Does Birmingham Stand?
After new investment came in over the summer, which spots former NFL superstar Tom Brady as a minority owner, the Blues’ campaign sees them surprising in the playoff picture after a good start to the season. New signings Siriki Dembele and Jay Stansfield have taken to water in front of goal, and the club looks like a shadow of themselves from a year ago when they were fighting to stay in the league.
However, despite all the summer signings, the question remains how much of this success was because of former manager John Eustace?
Will Rooney Be A Success?
Ultimately, only time will tell whether Rooney will be a hit or not, but the move seems extremely risky in my opinion. I think he did some good things with Derby in a terrible situation, and this will be the first time Rooney managers a team that will have high expectations of him. As a player, we know Rooney can deal with this pressure, however, when it’s him pointing his players around from the sideline, we have yet to see that.
With a 28% win rate percentage throughout his 137 matches in management, Rooney’s teams have particularly struggled at the back, however, this Blues’ side currently has the tied second-best defensive record in the division. If things start to slide in that department we may know who to point the finger at, however saying that, Birmingham does take on some of the big dogs over the next month.
I think Rooney is a big-time appointment that the fans can of course get behind, but after the start of the season the Blues have had, Birmingham fans finally started to feel good about themselves once again, and now the club has pulled a dangerous move that could either go boom or bust.
