Kieran Maguire drops brutal owners verdict as ‘sexy’ Rooney deal ‘bites’ Birmingham
The new owners at Birmingham City have tried to do ‘too much too quickly’ since their takeover of the club in July.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the decision to sack Wayne Rooney as manager.
Rooney was sacked by the Blues on Tuesday (2 January) after spending just 83 days in charge at St Andrew’s.
The former Manchester United and England star was hired by the club’s new owners to replace John Eustace when Birmingham sat sixth in the Championship table, but they now find themselves down in 20th after Rooney lost nine of his 15 games in charge.
Birmingham were taken over by Shelby Companies Limited in July, a US group headed by Tom Wagner.
Rooney signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Birmingham when he was hired in July and Sky Sports reporter Rob Dorsett states that talks are ongoing between Rooney and the club over his compensation payout.
Maguire believes the excitement around new owners at Birmingham has quickly faded due to their poor off-pitch decisions.
“The behaviour of the new owners at Birmingham City is a classic case of a new dawn fades, and that new dawn has faded extremely quickly,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“There’s no doubt that the previous owners were acting in their own self interest rather than that of Birmingham City football fans.
“The new owners have tried to rectify that.
“But the decision to sack a popular manager in the shape of John Eustace meant that there was a limited amount of sympathy towards Wayne Rooney.
“Rooney tried to implement the sexy football that the new owners wanted but that meant a change of culture from a training perspective and it did not manifest itself on the pitch.
“I think they’ve tried to do too much too quickly.
“They are naive in terms of their lack of understanding of football, despite appointing Gary Cook, which has come back to bite them.“
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