[Football] Birmingham Sack Rooney (02/01/2024)

[TomandJerry]

 

[Easy 10]

Debatable that this was the biggest decision they had to make. An important decision no question, but off the field the stadium hasn’t had a kick of paint in anger for 25 years, two stands closed, the ground sold off to a third party by asset stripping owners and its status as a cultural asset removed (sound familiar?), two sanctions already for FFP and a perilous financial position that was not sustainable under the previous ownership. I would say buying the ground back and shoring up the financial position was far more important, progress on the pitch of course is very important but not more so than risking the very future of the club. I’m surprised any Albion fan would think differently, perhaps only if they didn’t know the full picture.

Like I say, they have good intentions and are in the process of repairing the club off the field.

But in terms of footballing decisions, thus far they have shown themselves to be dumber than a bucket of spanners. Doesn't bode well.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Personally, I'm hoping Steve Cooper is willing to drop back down a league, because it's been widely rumoured that a currently failing Premier League club have had their eye on him for ages, and it would be funny if a single scrappy win against another poor team saved their current manager (who they'll sack in the end anyway) for just long enough to ensure their first choice replacement came off the market.

 

[peterward]

That’s interesting. I still think Potter has some integrity. I think he would see Birmingham as an interesting project.

Dont think Potter potentially thinking he can come back in at a much higher level than Birmingham is a question of his integrity.

It was all over press few weeks back that if Ten Hag is to be fired, Ratcliffe fancies Potter (as he did at Nice), Potter will be aware of that, and after a considerably upward trajectory of club size/success/finances in Swansea, Albion, Chelsea, I reckon Potter may well believe the level he gets back in, based on his time here and leaving rather than being fired, would qualify him for more than championship relegation battle.

 

[PeterT]

Like I say, they have good intentions and are in the process of repairing the club off the field.

But in terms of footballing decisions, thus far they have shown themselves to be dumber than a bucket of spanners. Doesn't bode well.

Agreed that this was a poor footballing decision made by the CEO, who is an employee of the club and not one of the owners as far as I know.

The owners remain very popular, and it‘s a world away from the previous owners who were clueless on every front but saw the opportunity to asset strip and line the stadium site up for future housing development with no known plans as to where Blues would play once that happened. In that context, the managerial merry go round is poor but not fatal.

 

[Seagull58]

Rooney says:-
"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."
They were in 6th when he was appointed and they're now in 20th place. Must be up there as one of the worst manager replacement decisions ever made.

 

[JBizzle]

The legend of Eustace has grown over the last few months. Many fans wanted himout anyway, there had been several winless runs and 4 poor away defeats on the trot, and his style of football was very basic. He then won 2 games in a row which put them 6th but that was only 3 points above something like 16th so it was a bit misleading. Because of the 2 wins, he had started to get popular and then got sacked in favour of the CEO’s mate Rooney, and it was the way that was done, more than the fact the Eustace was doing a good job, that was unpopular

I find that when a manager, who on paper looks decent, gets the boot the external reaction is rarely aligned with the internal views of the fans.

We had it with Hughton: How can you sack Hughton? He got you into the league! He kept you up! He's a "proper football man"! Careful what you wish for! And assorted Troy Townsend hysteria.

In truth, although almost everyone was sad to see him leave us, the last 6 months at Brighton were so, so bad (and I say this as someone who genuinely loves Hughton) that I know a number of long time fans thought about giving up their season ticket because the experience of going to games had become so frustratingly bleak.

• We couldn't score,
• We couldn't win,
• We'd stopped keeping clean sheets,
• We were shutting up shop an 1-0 DOWN to stop shipping more,
• We won two games between January and the end of the season in the league'
• The gap between Murray and the midfield was about half the pitch,
• and the line-ups had become so predictable that I could probably name more or less the bulk of it now without looking
  • Ryan;
  • Bruno, Dunk, Duffy, Bong or Bernardo;
  • Stephens, Propper, Bissouma, Knockaert, Gross;
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • Murray

From the outside though, the decision looked like madness. All they saw was an FA Cup Semi-Final appearance and two solid years in the Prem

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

G Pott will want to go somewhere where he can “win the f*cking champions league” no doubt

 

[Hamilton]

Dont think Potter potentially thinking he can come back in at a much higher level than Birmingham is a question of his integrity.

It was all over press few weeks back that if Ten Hag is to be fired, Ratcliffe fancies Potter (as he did at Nice), Potter will be aware of that, and after a considerably upward trajectory of club size/success/finances in Swansea, Albion, Chelsea, I reckon Potter may well believe the level he gets back in, based on his time here and leaving rather than being fired, would qualify him for more than championship relegation battle.

I missed that news.

I think ‘integrity’ was a clumsy word. I just think he might be more interested in the complexity of the project rather than the money or league position, despite the Chelsea debacle.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

G Pott will want to go somewhere where he can “win the f*cking champions league” no doubt

That was the moment I thought he’d lost it and was deffo on borrowed time. It was actually quite sad I thought!

 

[peterward]

Personally, I'm hoping Steve Cooper is willing to drop back down a league, because it's been widely rumoured that a currently failing Premier League club have had their eye on him for ages, and it would be funny if a single scrappy win against another poor team saved their current manager (who they'll sack in the end anyway) for just long enough to ensure their first choice replacement came off the market.

Being more charitable to the less fortunate, didnt make the resolutions list?

 

[Nobby]

I find that when a manager, who on paper looks decent, gets the boot the external reaction is rarely aligned with the internal views of the fans.

We had it with Hughton: How can you sack Hughton? He got you into the league! He kept you up! He's a "proper football man"! Careful what you wish for! And assorted Troy Townsend hysteria.

In truth, although almost everyone was sad to see him leave us, the last 6 months at Brighton were so, so bad (and I say this as someone who genuinely loves Hughton) that I know a number of long time fans thought about giving up their season ticket because the experience of going to games had become so frustratingly bleak.

• We couldn't score,
• We couldn't win,
• We'd stopped keeping clean sheets,
• We were shutting up shop an 1-0 DOWN to stop shipping more,
• We won two games between January and the end of the season in the league'
• The gap between Murray and the midfield was about half the pitch,
• and the line-ups had become so predictable that I could probably name more or less the bulk of it now without looking
  • Ryan;
  • Bruno, Dunk, Duffy, Bong or Bernardo;
  • Stephens, Propper, Bissouma, Knockaert, Gross;
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • 
    
  • Murray

From the outside though, the decision looked like madness. All they saw was an FA Cup Semi-Final appearance and two solid years in the Prem

Oh yes, that ol FA Cup Semi Final and the two solid years in the Prem crap.
Maybe they forgot he got he got us promoted to the Prem in the first place......
From being one of the worst teams in the Championship to oh so nearly promotion in his first full season.

Like you it seems


There is no comparison between Chris Hughton at Brighton and Wayne Rooney at Birmingham

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Being more charitable to the less fortunate, didnt make the resolutions list?

They have a significantly bigger wage bill than us: I wouldn't call them less fortunate in many respects. Less good, maybe?

 

[Uncle C]

Oh dear, how very sad for him and Coleen.

 

[Weststander]

Cheap shot. I would say they appear to be very good owners with a long term plan for the club, the stadium, the finances etc which the club hasn’t had for a generation. But they made a poor decision in appointing Rooney.

Rooney had few managerial credentials to take them higher, they sacked a perfectly good coach, stupidly going for a "Wow, it's Wayne Rooney". So what.

 

[BevBHA]

Would be very surprised if Cooper went there. Although it would be hilarious because Palace think they are getting him after Woy

 

[peterward]

Oh yes, that ol FA Cup Semi Final and the two solid years in the Prem crap.
Maybe they forgot he got he got us promoted to the Prem in the first place......
From being one of the worst teams in the Championship to oh so nearly promotion in his first full season.

Like you it seems


There is no comparison between Chris Hughton at Brighton and Wayne Rooney at Birmingham

I'd agree with both you and the wider point made by @JBizzle though you can't also discount Hughton was a disaster at Forest who Cooper took from bottom to play offs with almost entirely same squad.

When Hughton came to us, and we were struggling, he was at least pragmatic enough to come up with a system however turgid, based on the players here, that stopped us shipping goals and losing so many matches.

Rooney, didnt do that, he has tried to impose a style of play on players who he says can't play it. Hughton, like all good managers looked at what he had here and worked out what he needed to do with that squad to get results. Rooney is either dumb or naive.


Hughton beyond the first end of season, then had us playing some good, expansive attacking football with better players, our promotion season with Knockaert and Muzza firing, was amazing.

No doubt though at the end he had lost his way, or his voice/team talks weren't working. He was so defensively minded, it was dire to watch and devoid of any ambition. We stunk the league out despite a decent cup run, and even despite of the lacklustre performances, no youth players/rough diamonds were being trusted/played and the mutli million £ transfer revenues Bloom has recently returned, have all come since Hughton was fired and youth/rough diamonds polished and given a chance.

Bloom could see that, it wasn't working on the pitch, nor was his moneyball idea, we see with such success today.

If you want something different, you have to do something different. We can all see today Bloom was right to get rid when he did.

 

[PeterT]

Would be very surprised if Cooper went there. Although it would be hilarious because Palace think they are getting him after Woy

Some already saying it’s a done deal and Cooper is at the ground today. I don’t have a lot to back that up, however, so please don’t invest your Christmas bonus on it just yet ….

 

[BevBHA]

When Hughton came to us, and we were struggling, he was at least pragmatic enough to come up with a system however turgid, based on the players here, that stopped us shipping goals and losing so many matches.

Rooney, didnt do that, he has tried to impose a style of play on players who he says can't play it. Hughton, like all good managers looked at what he had here and worked out what he needed to do with that squad to get results. Rooney is either dumb or naive.

Think this also comes from having an experienced owner leading the ship. I can very much imagine Bloom’s instructions to Hughton were to steady the ship by whatever means necessary so we don’t get relegated. If successful he will reinvest in the squad and then Hughton could stamp his style down.

Perhaps the Brum owners wanted a change in style from the get go and made that clear to Rooney? In which case he’s in the difficult position of it being a results based business but trying to play an attractive style of football. By all accounts even Birmingham fans have said Eustace didn’t have them playing great football, just getting results. I think the owners will have learnt this lesson quickly that especially in the championship it’s not particularly about how you play, it’s getting points on the board. It’s a very unforgiving league.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Don't take this as a defence of his record, because it's RUBBISH.

But the timing of the appointment by the owners and then the sacking was/is madness.

The team were performing well playing a certain way before Rooney. The owners decided they wanted to completely change it so brought in a manager who wants to play that way. They've asked him to play that way and he wants to play that way.

They persisted with it. Continually trying to play that way but with terrible results. But you know what? They've made it to January so now is the time that the board and manager can really align and back each other by signing players to fit into this new style they both desperately seek............and then they sack him on the 2nd,

Madness.

Commit one way or the other. Either:
-back the pre-existing manager up to a window and THEN bring in someone new+new players if you want
-Get a new manager in for the summer and back him in the window with players to fit the new style

But to do it the way they have is bonkers.