Birmingham City addresses concerns of fans amid rocky start for Rooney
Birmingham City has addressed the concern of recent events to a fan via email, stating that time is patience for positive changes to work, following Rooney’s less than ideal start to his managerial career at the club.
Wayne Rooney was appointed as manager at Birmingham on 11th October, days after the controversial sacking of John Eustace, who was remove despite leaving the club in 6th Place in the playoffs and overseeing two impressive wins at home against Huddersfield Town and local rivals WBA. As media attention was notability high due to Rooney’s status as one of England’s decorated strikers on modern history, it was promise as the next stage of the club’s pathway to a positive future at the club, aiming for a transformation in the style of football and targeting the club’s return to the Premier League in the near future.
However, the first three games didn’t go as expected, as the club suffered 3 straight defeats, scoring only 1 goal and conceding 6 goals. This has lead to fans being frustrated with the club with the tactics, Rooney going in too fast with the changes and even to some fans hurling verbal abuse at Rooney, which it was condemned by many fans. It has brought a bit of a negative atmosphere at the club since.
A concerned fan has reached out to the club. The user @Bluesince62, on the Small Heath Alliance forum, shared the club’s response to this fan’s concerns.
The user said below: “I know it’s only words, but this was the answer to a concerned fan who emailed in worried about the effects of the abuse received and offering support – really nice to see. Up the Wagner, Up the Manager, Up the Blues”
Although we don’t see the original email, the club’s response urged fans to be patient and to maintain hope in the face of adversity, despite the challenging start to Rooney’s time at the club:
“Thank you for reaching out to the Club and sharing your thoughts and your support. It is much appreciated after a difficult week.
“The ambition for Birmingham City Football Club is to be world class in everything that it does. To realise this ambition, after years of neglect, changes are needed across every aspect of the Club. We have started the process. It is going to take time, but we have a plan and importantly the necessary backing to make it happen.
“Our owners and Board are in this for the long haul and have the resolve needed to achieve what they have set out to accomplish.
“Thank you for your continued support of the team, and the Club we love, as we move forward. A brighter future is ahead of us. It will be worth the wait.
“KRO”
Meanwhile, Blues coach Pete Shuttleworth has backed Rooney to be a good coach, pointing out his relationship with the gaffer and the targets for the future.
YouTube: SHUTTLEWORTH | “We’ve got the belief that we can get this right.”
During an interview with the club, published on Blues TV, he stated:
“This is our third club together and I hold him in the highest regard, We all know what a great player he was but I also think as a manager he’s going to be very, very successful.
“I always thought we had difficulties in our first two jobs in terms of at Derby County with the administration and how he dealt with that, he united the whole club, even though we were going through a period where we didn’t know if we were getting paid, if the club was going to go bust at the end of the year, it was still a happy place to go to and the players enjoyed it and were playing some good football. Although the points deduction eventually overcame us, before that we’d got a team that was playing in our identity and doing really well with the restrictions we were under.
“Then when he asked me to follow him out to America it was a great experience out there, a really underrated league in the MLS, a very technical league. Initially, it took us a little while to get the players into the football we wanted to play, but when we did last season we had some good joy out there, some good results, although we just missed out on the playoffs, it was a big improvement, we got the club going in the right direction.
“It’s great to be with him, the third club, I think he’s got all of the potential to be a really, really top coach. He’s got an instinct and an intuition to the game that I’ve not really witnessed before with other people I’ve worked with. Himself and all the other coaches, we’re here to get our style of play on this team and make it exciting for people to watch and go forward.”
Birmingham’s next fixture is against 2nd Place Ipswich Town, who only lost once in the league this season in a chaotic 3-4 defeat against Leeds. It won’t be an easy game, but fans may hope that something positive may could out of that fixture.
I hope after the frenzy and over the top reaction to Wayne Rooney’s appointment we can now reflect on the facts . Firstly just cast your minds back a few months when we had nothing to look forward to ,the new owners have raised our expectations , the work on the ground has forged ahead and we have hope ! Common sense say’s back the owners to the hilt they will not accept failure , just be patient after all the misery we now have optimism . Yes recent results have been bad but then again most teams who are doing well now have been through bad times . On John Eustace i think it’s fair to say he earned our respect for the work he put in however, the owners wanted to go in a different direction and we should back that decision . It’s all about raising the profile of the club to attract investment which in turn benefits the club . I may be overly optimistic here but surely let us all calm down we will turn the corner soon .KRO
If in it for the long haul why the immediate attempt to play ‘no fear’ football and risk the stability achieved in the last few months. After all we have been told many times it’s ‘a process’, so please practice what you preach. Also please respect and listen to the fans. Patience should be reciprocated, and the fans are the beating heart of this great club.
Let our new manager get on with managing/changing tactics as he sees fit. Does anyone really expect promotion this season or next? Too many armchair managers
Yes I did believe under Eustace we would have got promotion in the next two years. I now think we have c
Gone backwards.
What a load of bull from Wagner, the fans are this club not you, you appointed a drone, if he loses the next 3 games he should be sacked, other wise the fans will tell you, this is a English club not American and don’t you forget it, mr Wagner
You are right Blair, should have given him another 2 months if won every game let him do his job, I foresee the future, Rooney will be sacked before Xmas, if they keep him on after all those defeats.
Need to be positive. All this negative stuff is not helping. Rooney is here for a while. We’ve come a long way since last season. We all appreciate Eustace did a good job. The owners have put the money in. It’s time to give them a chance?
What concerns me is that their email states ‘changes are needed across EVERY aspect of the club’. Does that mean Craig Gardner forced out, no more Mr Blue Sky pre match, the end of mascot Beau Brummie, the renaming of the Kop, Tilton and Gil Merrick stands and even, heaven forbid, an application to change the name of our beloved club Birmingham City. Let us hope the new regime do believe in loyalty and tradition.
I always believe absolutely nobody is above criticism. The board has changed alot over a short space of time and have said many times this is a long term project . So sacking Eustace just seems self defeating to me . Rooney was obviously wanted from the get go and they hung on until he left DC united.The worrying thing isn’t that we’ve lost 3 in a row its the performances or lack of that’s the worrying thing. If we lose against ipswich and Sunderland I won’t be surprised but after the international break we
play Rotherham and sheffield Wednesday. If we don’t win both of those and lose the previous 5 then he should be sacked.
We all want Rooney and Co to succeed and we all want the new owners to complete the 100% take over and fulfil all their promises, but I think we were all a bit shocked when the team that had been assembled, recruited and coached over the past 18 months to play a particular way and was coming to a reasonable conclusion of a work in progress, were, asked, overnight, to play a totally different way and system and it became immediately obvious against Boro, it wasn’t going to work and the reason Mr Rooney and his team came in for so much criticism was because he didn’t appear to spot this and continued with the same approach for the next 2 games. The cry from the supporters was ‘are you not seeing this’ and were very worried he would just keep going regardless and was going to be another Zola nightmare.
Continuing on from above, it was the same as saying to Mo Farar, we have got you a new coach but he doesn’t want you to run marathons anymore, he wants you compete in the 400 metre hurdles instead and your first race is in 2 days.
Peter echoes what many fans feel and fear, and that voice deserves the respect of any owners. Players, managers, owners come and go, the fans are always there!
Why do owners feel that by appointing an ex player that they are going to be a good manager.
You only have to look at two ex England players namely Gerrard and Lampard,really good players but not good managers.
We will not now if JE would have got better results in the last three games but I think he should have been given the whole season to see what he could do with the team that had been put together for this season.
With Ipswich and Sunderland to come I can see the scenario of Rooney not winning any of his first five games
Advice to Rooney; Find your best starting 11 and stock with it instead of keep changing the Team.Whan we get Laird,Buchanan,Anderson and Hall back we will have the makings of a very good Team but stop keep making changes and stick to one system.You don’t see Leicester and the like keep changing systems.
Heartbroken with all the good that has taken place in the Stadium & the investment in Players by TW, we are so grateful & was so excited for the future then……. You press the self destruct button & sack JE when he deserved a run in charge until January at least.
Now we have a done nothing, won nothing as far as management is concerned in Rooney! Gutted.
I did write into the club recently such was my concern at some of the abuse being directed towards the Owners and Management. I think may be a reference to the really thoughtful response I received from the club. All in it together KRO 💙🏐.
BCFC have been going backwards for so long! We have been given hope and the chance to change, but need patience. Small changes have limited impact and we need to rebuild from the ground (literally) upwards.
John Eustace was doing a reasonable job. He may well have got 1 more point than Wayne Rooney over the last 3 games, and then what happens next. John Eustace was the manager of Kidderminster just a few years ago. Why do we think he would have the skills to get us promoted?
Let’s get behind such a great ownership team and the manager (even if unproven) and see the benefits.
It is time for positivity and to support our team, not to criticise and to be negative! Be a real supporter!
We needed huge change and we are at the start of that road, a very long road!
Hope the happy clappers are still going to be clapping after Ipswich and Sunderland losses then what back to relegation fight that we are all sick of
Part of the problem is that when you have no hope like we had for so long, you accept your fate. When you finally see some hope it is hard to accept that it may be being needlessly taken away by a crass decision. Hence the negative reaction.
I also feel that the sacking was not the way Blues do things, ignoring the aberration that was the Chinese ownership we have traditionally been loyal to our staff and sacking Eustace was not our way of doing things especially in the graceless way it was done.
The criteria for getting a job at Blues now seems to be that you are a mate of Gary Cook. I hope that we are getting them at “mates rates” !
Win or loose, I was really enjoying the season up until the sacking of JE. A happy dressing room and (mostly ) happy fans. Now a dark cloud seems to hang over things. I hope that I am wrong and that the good feelings return soon .
Finally, being a pedant, could I ask that articles by Blues Focus are proof read before posting – the mistakes in this article make it virtually unreadable. KRO.
John Eustace should have been given till atleast Christmas before any decision was made as to whether a change of Manager was needed. If the results had gone badly for him then fair enough bring in a new coach with a new way of thinking who then had the benefit of the transfer window to fall back on to make any tweaks to beef up the squad and tactics that he felt was required to get the team back to winning ways but to bring in Wayne Rooney who really is just a name into the club at this time was just wrong and Gary Cook needs to put his hands up and eat humble pie over this shockingly bad appointment of man nobody wanted at the club.
A bit of prospective is needed by fans. Without TW there probably would not be a club. The ground we were renting was falling apart and even the training ground at WASPS was being paid for by Gary Gardner. Since the owners have come in the debts have been cleared, the ground is being fixed, there has been significant investment in the team and in the training ground and real positivity for a very long time. In short the new owners have been the best thing to happen to us for a long long time. John Eustace has done a good steady job but I recall people calling for him to be sacked before the Huddersfield game. Research shows that 19 out of the last 20 teams to have been promoted have played on the front foot. The blueprint to success is clear and unfortunately John Eustace’s counter attack style is the exception rather than the rule. Most of us have reservations on Rooney because of his previous record and believe he is the wrong appointment and very likely fail. However we all need to get behind the board and it’s long term plan for our future. Fans who are swearing abuse at Wagner really need to sort their f***in heads before he decides screw these arseholes and sell up. Quite simply STFU and get behind the team and manager. If Rooney fails to produce then he’s sacked and you know these owners won’t mess about replacing him with another manager that follows the blueprint.
I’ve supported the Blues since 1945 and was a season ticket holder in Club Class until resigning because of age after 64 years and I did not agree with the disrespectful sacking of John Eustace after the tremendous job he had done in such difficult a situation but it is short sighted to not be absolutely tremendously grateful for Mr Wagner and his associates coming in and buying such a run down club that we have become and immediately making so so many improvements in such a short time He is a God send and even a far far better owner than Sullivan and Co so we must be eternally grateful
I’ve got to confess after initially talking Wayne Rooney up, I’m rapidly becoming disillusioned an disappointed with the way Wayne and the team have performed. At the moment we are battling on two fronts, 1 either the manager is not upto the task in hand or 2 the team as a whole are simply not good enough, personally I think it’s a bit of both, I know and accept we are in much better place now and can be forward looking, but bluenoses take it as you will but I’m sick to death of losing and fighting for a point. I approach each match with no confidence and negativity when all we crave is a little cheer, I’m truly sorry if I’ve offended the die hard fans but what’s the point when you have financial resources and hopefully a cracking stadium when there’s nothing to watch there. Something had better change fast Wagner Cook and Brady cannot be expected to continue living in failure, come on give us something to cheer about.😞