Tom Brady and the Birmingham City board have been advised to take lessons from how Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are running things at Wrexham.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Blues, with NFL legend Brady now an investor at St Andrew’s, have pieced together ambitious plans for the future. Manchester United icon Wayne Rooney forms part of that project after being drafted in as head coach, but he has struggled for results through the early part of his reign. Birmingham are said to have got too “excited”, with Rooney’s appointment considered to be naive, and the Championship outfit are being urged to use Wrexham as an example of how success can be achieved through the right approach.
WHAT GOODMAN SAID ABOUT BRADY & ROONEY
Former West Brom and Wolves star Don Goodman – who knows all about life in the West Midlands – said when speaking to BoyleSports, who offer the latest EFL Betting, of what has gone wrong for Birmingham: “The owners probably got a bit excited. They’ve got the involvement of Tom Brady. They’ve thought, ‘who’s the biggest name out there in a football sense?’ I’m not sure they’ve taken advice from football people. They’ve got Craig Gardner there in some capacity, but if the owners said ‘we want Wayne Rooney’, how much resistance is Craig Gardner going to put up? So the investment in owners like these (Brady) are welcome, but I do think they need to try and involve football people and understand the game. I thought there was a little bit of naivety with how they acted in relieving John Eustace and replacing him instantly with Wayne Rooney. When you look at Wrexham, because that’s what people compare American owners to, Wrexham have Shaun Harvey and Les Reed in the background. These are football people who have been in football for decades and will be there to give them guidance and advice. I’m not sure how much of that the Birmingham owners have had. Even when you look at Chelsea with Todd Boehly – he breezed in there and he became sporting director and started buying all these players, it was a little bit scattergun. I’m not sure how much football advice he was getting at the time, but it seems to have settled down now. Birmingham need some footballing intelligence in the background.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Goodman claims Brady and Co set themselves up for a fall when making bold statements regarding the direction in which Birmingham would look to move, with reinforcements now required in the next transfer window. Goodman added: “They drew some terrible attention to themselves with the phrase ‘no-fear football’. What is no-fear football? Are they trying to say John Eustace played with fear? They certainly did not. The owners have been a bit naive in their statement, in their timing of relieving John Eustace of his duties when things were going so well, so having gone this far, I would expect them to back Wayne Rooney to the hilt. The only reason why they might not be if they felt there was a genuine chance of actually getting sucked into a relegation battle. That’s a long way from happening at the moment, but if results continue like this then maybe they’ll have a rethink. As things stand, though, I’d expect Rooney to see the season out and be able to build on his squad in January.”
WHAT NEXT FOR ROONEY & BIRMINGHAM?
Birmingham occupied a play-off spot when relieving former boss Eustace of his duties, but they have now slumped to 15th in the Championship table – with Rooney collecting just one win and five points in total from his eight games at the helm.
