Birmingham City sacks Wayne Rooney after just 15 games

Birmingham City Football Club sacked manager Wayne Rooney after fewer than three months in charge of the Championship club. Birmingham City has been on a spiral of form. After 15 games in the campaign under the Englishman, Birmingham City picked up just two wins. At the time of his arrival, Birmingham City FC was sixth in the Championship table. That is good enough for the promotion playoffs. At the time of Rooney’s departure, the Blues are in 20th and a mere six points off the drop zone. Most recently, Birmingham City lost at Elland Road to Leeds, 3-0.

Birmingham City echoed the decision came based on results under Rooney. The Blues picked up a dismal 10 points in the 15 league games in which Rooney was in charge. At the time, the club saw the appointment of Rooney as an ambitious step to push the club to the next level. Naturally, that included promotion to the Premier League. That now seems like an impossibility with BCFC’s position in the table.

Club CEO Garry Cook said Birmingham City needs better from its manager. The hunt for a successor is already underway.

“We are committed to doing what is necessary to bring success to St. Andrew’s,” Cook said in a press release. “Unfortunately, Wayne’s time with us did not go as planned and we have decided to move in a different direction. The search for a successor begins with immediate effect and we will update supporters when we have further news.”

Wayne Rooney says he needed more time at Birmingham City

The Championship is notoriously relentless. Rooney was in charge for just 83 days, and he managed 15 games. That is a game every six days. While it may not seem like a lot, there is no break for international contests or cup ties. It can be a major challenge for a manager, particularly upon his return to a league, to implement his desired tactics.

“Football is a results business — and I recognize they have not been at the level I wanted them to be,” Rooney said on his social media accounts on Tuesday. “However, time is the most precious commodity a manager requires and I do not believe 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed.”

Rooney went on to add that this dismissal will take time to recover from. Still, he sees a future in the managerial field down the line.

“Personally, it will take me some time to get over this setback. I have been involved in professional football, as either a player or manager, since I was 16. Now, I plan to take some time with my family as I prepare for the next opportunity in my journey as a manager.”

BCFC names interim head coach

Steve Spooner will fill in as the interim coach during the hiring process for Birmingham City. Spooner is the Professional Development Coach at BCFC, and he retains much of the coaching staff from Rooney’s hierarchy.

The sacking of John Eustace in October now seems massively perplexing given Birmingham City’s predicament, even if no club has signed the Englishman as a manager yet.

PHOTOS: IMAGO.