Birmingham City’s new American owners are hungry for success and think Wayne Rooney, the former Manchester United and England striker, is the man to deliver it. That’s why they’ve sacked manager John Eustace and handed Rooney a three and a half year contract. Tom Wagner, Birmingham’s co-owner, claims Rooney will take the club on the ‘next stage of our journey’, after dismissing Eustace for being ‘misaligned’ with their ambitions. ‘Wayne is a born winner,’ Wagner explained. A born winner as a player, yes – as a manager not so much.
Plenty of Birmingham fans are sceptical about Rooney’s managerial track record and rightly so. In his first two jobs as manager – Derby County and DC United – he won just 38 out of 139 games (a win rate of 27.3 per cent). World-beating management this is not.
Rooney’s appointment is symptomatic of a flawed faith that great players have what it takes to be elite managers
Even some football pundits, a profession dominated by ex-players who are reluctant to call out one of their own like Rooney, appear mystified by the turn of events. Eustace was doing a good job (Birmingham are currently in the play-off spots in the Championship) and he had previously led the club through a successful relegation battle. His sacking came after two straight home wins in which the team scored seven goals. What more could anyone reasonably want? Certainly the Birmingham fans appeared happy enough with Eustace, who has long-standing connections with the club.
Bizarrely enough, Birmingham have been down this path before. In 2016, the club sacked manager Gary Rowett when they were seventh in the Championship, replacing him with a big name, the former Chelsea star Gianfranco Zola. It didn’t end well: Zola lost his job just four months later, during which the team won only twice in 24 games.
The omens this time round are not good, either. The pressure will be on Rooney from day one and he will struggle to win over the sceptics. Birmingham are currently 6th in the Championship table. Can Rooney realistically be expected to take them much higher by the end of the season? What would success look like? Does anyone know?
The fans will be on his back from the very first game and any setbacks will be magnified. The club’s owners will certainly get more coverage and wider brand recognition because of the inevitable draw of Rooney but this counts for little on the pitch itself. All in all, it looks a risky and unnecessary gamble.
Rooney’s appointment is symptomatic of a romantic but flawed faith across football that the great players have what it takes to be elite managers, simply because they have achieved success playing at the highest levels. In reality few, if any, make the grade.
Take the ex-Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard, a brilliant player and leader on the pitch, and once widely tipped to be a great success in management. He was sacked from his job at Aston Villa after a run of mediocre results, and he is now managing in the minnow Saudi Pro League. It is hard to see where he goes next.
Frank Lampard, also a footballing giant at club and international level, is another who was tipped to do big things in management. He is currently without a club, after a disastrous and short-lived second spell as manager of Chelsea. Would any Chelsea fans want him back?
Gary Neville, a pundit, club owner and businessman, was lauded in some quarters as the next big thing, made for a life in coaching and management. He left his post as England assistant manager under Roy Hodgson after a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Iceland in the 2016 Euros. Neville was also sacked as manager of Valencia in La Liga after just a few months in charge. The list of footballing stars who didn’t quite make it to the very top as managers also includes Bobby Moore, England’s only ever World Cup-winning captain.
The jury is still out on Wayne Rooney: perhaps he will prove the doubters wrong and turn out to be a very good manager. It is fair to say that, so far, he has demonstrated little to suggest that he is a serial managerial winner in the mould of Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp. No one should feel too sorry for him though – there is always the Saudi Pro League.
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