MY THOUGHTS ON WAYNE ROONEY SACKED AT BIRMINGHAM CITY... 

(Sorry it's a long one...)

After a nasty altercation on New Year's Day when the fans turned on Wayne Rooney, today the club officially announced his departure with immediate effect. 

The announcement came at 11 o’clock this morning after much speculation. 

With the club stating: “Despite best efforts, results have not met expectations... and therefore, the board feels that a change in management is in the best interests…

The club’s board and management are fully aligned and will continue to drive transformation and take bold steps to rebuild Birmingham City into the organisation its fans and community deserve...

The search for a successor begins with immediate effect and will update supporters when we have further news..." 


That 'Self-Destruct Button'...

I've held my tongue on this for a bit as I want to be supportive of the club and team. And also Rooney. There was never a game where I wanted us to lose. But he just didn't work and I can now confidently say, what a disaster of an appointment...  

I honestly have no idea how we keep doing it to ourselves. The relationship we have with that self-destruct button is infuriating. 

Countless times we have done this to ourselves over the past eight year since Gary Rowett's sacking in 2016. 

We replaced him with Gianfranco Zola. Who, yes, did well with Watford but hadn't been in a job since then. But what was more baffling was that there was nothing wrong. Very similarly to the Rooney appointment, Rowett was in the play-offs (like Eustace) and we replace him with a big brand name manager in Zola (Rooney). 

And though the football he had us playing at times was good and he was perhaps slightly unlucky with the group of players he had as they struggled to find the back of the net consistently. But to win only two of your in 23 games in charge was a disastrous choice to have made. 

However, in fairness to the owners at the time, they rectified this mistake by putting Harry Redknapp in charge for the remaining three games of the 2016/17 season and he kept us up. Ending in an excellent final day at Ashton Gate with Che Adams scoring the only goal. 

The owners (BSHL) also got a bit of a boost in having a big name manager work and they decided to keep him on which I believe most fans were pleased with at the time. 

But Redknapp wanted to spend big, which there was nothing wrong with. However the names he had in mind like John Terry, Aiden Flint, Joe Brian, etc. weren't interested in coming and rather than making sensible signings and preserving the cash he'd been given, he wasted that and splashed out 20 million on C-choice recruitments at best. 

And unsurprisingly, after a woeful start to the new campaign, he was sacked. 

More money down the drain. 

We'll gloss over Steve Cotterill because he was just... yeah... 

But then came our knight in shining armour and what ended painfully... Garry Monk. BSHL's greatest decision they made during their chaotic reign. 

Monk from the get-go understood the club and players, and knew exactly what needed to be met in order to get us back on track. 

He stabilised the team and put out a consistent lineup that got us wins in order to drag us off the bottom. We secured our survival on the last day of the season in the glorious St. Andrew's sunshine against Fulham. Denying them automatic promotion but who went onto stop Villa getting promotion in the final at Wembley a month later. 

Thanks Tom Cairney. 

The season that followed was, for me, my favourite season since we were relegated into the Championship 13 years ago. Yes, the 11/12 season was memorable and playing in Europe will never be beat. 

But after years of intolerable, dire entertainment, we finally had something we could dig our teeth into. 

Some of my favourite moments from that season were... (mostly Lukas Jutkiewicz) 

Yes, there were some awful moments that season. The worst being that 1-0 defeat to Villa. It suddenly sunk in that they were going to get promoted... 

But I would relive a season like that in a heartbeat. The memories I had from what wasn't even that great of a season was far greater than any of the other seasons we've had since. 

But the season finished on the most painful note we could've imagined... 

June 18th, 2019, Garry Monk was sacked. I knew it was coming. As a Blues fan you can feel it happening, like a change in the force. 

I definitely spent a good few days locked in my room. 

And then Villa got promoted, and then we lost Adams, and then we lost Jota, and then Morrison, and then we didn't replace any of them, and then we didn't get a replacement for Monk. 

The form dropped, the crowds dropped, the morale dropped. And within a year (December 2018 to December 2019), we went from feeling excited for the future, right back to square one, moaning, groaning, and hating the day out. 

We've never replaced him. Rowett was bad but Monk was worse. I feel sad whenever I see highlights from that season. It all just looked great, the kit, the players, the crowds. There was something magical about the 18/19 campaign. 

But let's move on else, I'll start crying... 


Why didn't Rooney work?

Well, if you're a Blues fan, you know the reason why. But if you don't know, Rooney failed because once again, there was nothing wrong before he was appointed, and then everything was wrong. 

And I don't want to bash him more because I know he'll have been getting this for the past three months, but he really didn't help himself. 

His first game in charge away at Middlesbrough should've been the start of him trying to build the connection with us. But before and throughout the game, I didn't feel he acknowledged us all that much. 

I don't remember him coming over to us before the game, we chanted his name when the game was going on and he seemingly just stood there, and after a woeful, canted performance, he hid amongst the huddle of players at the end of the game, and disappeared off down the tunnel. 

It was peculiar. 

Then came his first home game four days later, and it was more or less the same. We were again playing poor and Hull had an easy night. 

Rooney again seemed to show very little interest in coming over to the fans and some supporters gave him a fair bit of grief when heading back to the changing rooms. 

He was not off to a flyer. 

Agreeably, he had a tough run of fixtures to kick his managerial role off, but he didn't manage it in a sensible, constructed way. He was too keen to show off his ideas and the players weren't up to speed. 

And rather than compromise (a word I feel I've said over a million times now), he criticised his team and demanded better. Which is fair enough because the performances weren't great, but it wasn't all their fault. 

A team who were in the play-offs before you joined aren't an incompetent side. 

A more structrual way to approach your new job would've been to allow the team to sort themselves out against Middlesbrough, play the exact side that'd beat West Brom prior to the break, and slowly implement his style and tactics where issues crept up. 

But no, he was (dare I say it) arrogant. And stubborn to adapting his ideas. 

And I'm sorry but we've seen that with Aitor Karanka before. Where he was unwilling to change up his approach, and therefore paid the consequences. 

His last game in charge at Elland Road was the pinnacle of an horrible time. Yes, Leeds are a top side and will most probably be promoted either automatically or through the play-offs, but the attitude the players displayed for the however amount of money we fans paid in tickets, petrol or train tickets, and also food and drink, was criminal. 

And the fans demonstrated that and aired their frustrations after Leeds fans began singing 'sacked in the morning' at Rooney, which many of us latched onto, and evidently proved to be effective... 


So who's next?

Well currently as of writing this, the top three main candidates for the role (according to Sky Bet) are Steve Cooper (10/11), Lee Carsley (4/1), and former Leeds boss, Jesse Marsch (5/1). 

Marsch and Carsley don't fill me with confidence. Even though, yes, Carsley is ex-Blues and a Blues fan himself, and has also got experience working with the England Youth. At this current stage, I want some security and to throw Carsley into a full-time role would feel risky. 

And would be a shame if he were to lose his job too. So currently, no. 

As to Jesse Marsch too. Did pretty abject at Leeds, with most of their supporters rating him very lowly. So again, no. 

Steve Cooper on the other hand, oh yes! 

Recently sacked at Nottingham Forest. He took them from bottom of the table when he took over, went on a tear of form rolling us over twice, and won the play-off final against Huddersfield to earn them promotion to Premier League for the first time for more than 20 years. 

A remarkable achievement and I admired them that season because they showed they didn't need to spend big or play fancy football. They used the resources they had available (resources that were bottom of the table at the start), played on the break, and got goals. 

That is, in my opinion, how you get out of the Championship. And is also the way I believe the way you should try and stay in the Premier League the following season, which Forest achieved. 

His time at Forest was sensational and so I would happily welcome him with open arms into Birmingham City. 

He would be the ideal appointment after a dreadful past few months. 

However, if negotiations fail then there is one man who I'd love to see return... Gary Rowett. 

The man we let go and was the domino effect of everythign that has happened since his sacking, could be the answer for all our problems. 

Who'd have thunk it? 

He ticks all the right boxes too;

He is the ideal plan-B if Cooper can't be bought in... 


The future

Well strangely enough after Rooney's sacking, I'm feeling rather optimistic again. 

I feel for the rest of the season we'll be ok. We should pick up a few wins and hopefully stride away from the relegation zone. I feel we can reach as high as 10th at this current stage. Judging off the recent form and knowing we might have some trips along the way, I don't feel we need to worry about going down anymore. 

Personally, the lowest we'll finish will be 15th, in my opinion. Even when Rooney was still in charge, I didn't think we were going to go down. It'd have just been a nervy end to the season that's all. 

But with Cooper or Rowett. Tony Mowbray or John Eustace. I think we'll be fine now for this season and we can focus our attentions back onto feeling better about the club and enjoying going to games again. 

Fingers crossed Cooper says yes... 


Are you feeling better about the team now Rooney’s gone or do you fear we might be relegation candidates after such a long run of bad form? 

Be sure to @ me on Twitter (@Tommy_Kelsall) I'll try read and reply to as many of your comments. 

Thanks for reading! 

Keep Right On 💙