Johnny Phillips: Rooney's two games in and fans are singing the Blues
A barrage of boos drowned out some of the more abusive requests advising Wayne Rooney to consult the transatlantic flight timetable at the earliest opportunity and return to D.C. United, where he had been in charge over the past year.
It made for a dispiriting scene at St Andrew’s on Wednesday evening as the new Birmingham City manager headed off the pitch and down the players’ tunnel towards the dressing rooms. This was a second successive defeat for Rooney since he took charge just over a fortnight ago and his new team is yet to score a goal.
“There is never a good time to make such a decision,” wrote Blues CEO Garry Cook in his open letter to supporters explaining why the club had parted ways with Rooney’s predecessor, John Eustace. That assertion does not really stand up. There are both good and bad times to sack a manager and this this may well fall into the latter category.
Eustace had just taken Blues into the top six of the Championship and with it a sense of stability on the pitch was complementing the impressive work being done off it by the new ownership.
Cook spoke about a misalignment between Eustace and the club’s leadership following a series of meetings “over a number of months” which made the decision necessary. Only those involved are party to what that means exactly but the October international break was the time the board decided to act.
This is about more than just one decision to sack a manager and another decision to employ someone else, though. What perhaps needed greater consideration was the current squad depth, its qualities and its effectiveness. Eustace brought stability and offered that going forward until the moment was right for change.
If an uplift is needed or troubles need averting, then a manager can be sacked at any time. But if total transformation is sought then it is always the summer.
Eustace was not on a damaging losing streak nor had he lost the dressing room. Birmingham have gone for a revolution in playing style and have taken a huge gamble that it will pay-off mid-season with a manager who has no track record of success just yet.
“What I’m asking the players to do is completely different to what they’ve been doing,” Rooney said on Thursday. “We need to be a bit patient with it.”
The Championship is not renowned for offering up patience. With Middlesbrough and Hull City taking maximum points already, it will be interesting to see what Southampton achieve against Blues at lunchtime today, in a game being screened live on Sky Sports.
“I want to change the culture and identity of the club,” Rooney continued. “The teams who get promoted are the teams who play football.” Although he did add that Luton Town are the recent exception to that.
Southampton made their managerial change in the summer and Russell Martin is gradually putting his own imprint on the team, but it has not been without its teething problems in the shape of some heavy defeats. The Saints have a far stronger squad than Birmingham’s and their campaign appears to be getting on track.
Asking this Blues team to change their identity mid-season is just not practical.
Some supporters have spoken about an atmosphere in the stands that lost its spark in midweek. Deflated by the change of direction when the fanbase had finally found something to get behind, it will take some hard work from Rooney to win over supporters, many of whom already appear to have made their minds up.
What the owners clearly do not envisage is for results to undermine the good work that is being done behind the scenes.
The upgrade in facilities both at St Andrew’s and the Wast Hills training ground has been hugely impressive in such a short space of time.
The ambition is there. These are exciting times for Blues fans who have spent years suffering under the financial mismanagement of previous regimes.
Cook rightly believes recruitment is vital and he revealed with some enthusiasm the forthcoming plans: “The team is now supported through data-enhanced decision making, with a player identification system in place enabling them to unearth hidden gems that strengthen the team and plan effectively for future transfer windows.”
If some fans thought all this could have been done while Eustace established the club in the Championship for the remainder of the season, then they will anxiously be hoping that the new broom does not undermine the owners’ plans.
Rooney won 24 of his 85 games in charge of Derby County although he made the team competitive in his only full season against the backdrop of a 21-point deduction for financial irregularities, so should not be judged entirely on results alone. But in America he managed only 14 wins from 53 games, twice failing to qualify for the MLS play-offs.
“The future is bright and we are on the rise again,” Cook signed off. It has been a testing start for the first managerial appointment of this bold and brave new era.
Over a glorious playing career Rooney showed many qualities, in amongst them he was always regarded as a fighter. He will need that fighting spirit in spades if he is to prove the doubters wrong and show that the time was right, after all, for a new manager at Blues.
