Simon Jordan has delivered a brutally honest verdict on Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham City appointment.
Rooney has now been Birmingham City boss for two months.
He replaced the well-liked John Eustace back in October and has since overseen 11 games, taking just two wins and two draws from those games; so eight points from a possible 33.
Blues now sit in 17th place of the Championship table and 10 points behind Hull City who occupy 6th, which is where Birmingham City sat when Eustace was sacked and Rooney was appointed.
And although he continues to divide opinion, there’s signs of Rooney’s Birmingham City coming together after a positive 1-0 win at Cardiff City last week, followed up by a hard-fought performance in the 3-2 defeat vs leaders Leicester City.
Simon Jordan says Birmingham City have ‘got what they deserve’
Speaking on talkSPORT, pundit Jordan gave his verdict on Rooney’s initial Birmingham City appointment, saying:
“Obviously we had the headline news that they were sixth in the league and were doing okay, but certain Birmingham fans were saying ‘it was a hard watch with Eustace, it wasn’t great football, and it was beginning to come off the boil’, and so Rooney caught them at the time when they were moving from boiling to simmer.
“Playing 11 games and getting eight points is relegation form, if you continue that, you get relegated. If you extrapolate that over a season, you get 32 points, you finish bottom of the league or second to bottom. Do I think that will continue? Probably not.”
Birmingham City currently have a six-point gap to the bottom three. But with the likes of QPR and Sheffield Wednesday gaining momentum, and Stoke City have appointed a new boss in Steven Schumacher, Blues could quickly get sucked into a relegation scrap.
Jordan believes it won’t happen. But he does think that Blues are now paying the price for their surprising appointment of Rooney, adding:
“He’s gone to America, he’s done nothing in America, and he’s started slowly at Birmingham, so I don’t know what we can say.
“It almost feels like you have to be apologetic for being critical of Wayne Rooney, but there’s nothing to criticise or praise, there’s just nothing there. They’ve got what they deserve, haven’t they?”
The Birmingham City ‘project’
Rooney was brought in to kickstart the true vision that the Birmingham City owners have for the club.
That vision is not only a successful club, but one that is entertaining to watch as well.
Rooney’s Birmingham City are a much more attacking-focused team who like to win the ball back high up the pitch, and they actually do that quite effectively.
And whilst results have been poor, there’s certainly evidence of a changing Birmingham City side and given a transfer window or two, Rooney could put his own stamp on the side and really get the fans on board.
The frustrating and confusing aspect here might be the board’s decision to start the season with Eustace and put together a team that worked under him, only to then go and hire Rooney; they should’ve brought Rooney in sooner if they knew they were going to change coaches.
And like Jordan says, Rooney is yet to achieve anything in management. There’s very little to talk about other than his poor start to life at St Andrew’s, so he’ll be determined to make it right and to show that he can have something to offer in the dugout.
There’s a lot of pressure on everyone at the club for this appointment to work out. But if Blues can play like they did against Leicester when they face a managerless Plymouth Argyle this weekend, they could be in for a big win.