Since Built In Birmingham: Brady & The Blues aired on August 1st, much has been made of the NFL legend’s critique of Wayne Rooney’s “work ethic”. In the eyes of unbiased football fans, today’s BBC clip surely does nothing but further justify Brady’s words.
In a teaser clip for his next punditry exercise, Wayne Rooney responded to Tom Brady’s viral criticism by saying: “I think it was a very unfair comment. When I went into Birmingham they were in a mess really.”
He would go onto say that the managers who came in after him, namely Tony Mowbray and Gary Rowett, “also struggled as well.”
Most Read on Blues Focus
John Eustace, who preceded Rooney and apparently oversaw the “mess” that he claims Blues were in, won 1.63 points per game and had the club sat 6th in the table. In contradiction with his today’s remarks, Rooney previously acknowledged this. While appearing on the Stick to Football podcast in February 2024, Rooney said that “John Eustace had done a good job”.
Eustace is credited with keeping the club united during a tough period
Tony Mowbray’s tenure at St Andrews, where he won 1.67 points per game, must’ve been only slightly better than “a mess” then. Gary Rowett only won 1.38 points per game. By Rooney’s logic, Rowett’s short ‘struggle’ at Blues was closer to a disaster than just “a mess”.
As Blues fans’ are all too aware, Rooney won only two of his 15 league games, earning 0.67 points per game. If he considers over double that figure “a mess”, then what does he think about his own time at Blues? He’d never give himself an overcritical assessment like he has done with these other coaches, and we all know why.
Rooney’s contradiction’s, baseless historical revisionism and just his generally poor record in management all come together to create two conclusions: Rooney’s words hold absolutely no weight and he’ll say anything to avoid being accountable for his own failings. But isn’t taking responsibility one of the core pillars of a good work ethic?
In the same interview, Rooney also stated that “the players weren’t really the players who could take the club forward.” This is mostly true. So why did he reaffirm the board’s unrealistic expectations? If he was aware of the players’ shortcomings (you’d hope the head-coach would be) then why did play into those faults and not a more pragmatic style. That team wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t built for possession. Yet he fed into the delusion that it was.
Deflecting again, Rooney said that he didn’t “think [Brady] really understood football that well at the time.” This is true, even by Brady’s own admission. However, it’s clear (especially after seeing the documentary) that Brady plays more of a tangible role in creating a winning culture at Blues than most give credit for. It’s a role that would be useful at any professional sports club. There’s nothing unique about the mentality that you need to win games of specifically football. It’s the same mentality anyone at the elite level of sport needs to be successful. Brady’s football credentials aren’t really relevant. Rooney refuses to acknowledge this and dismisses Brady as an outsider to the game. It’s another meaningless point which doesn’t hold up under any scrutiny. As with everything above, Rooney’s only said it to avoid taking responsibility his abysmal record. No wonder he didn’t improve at Plymouth. He won’t acknowledge the areas where he needs to improve. What quality work ethic!
Rooney won just four of his 23 league games at Home Park
The documentary which spawned this back and forth has already done a good job of showing us where Brady’s concerns as a stakeholder came from. The cringeworthy, misaligned conversation between the two says it all. Minutes later, Rooney’s eagerness to delegate a team meeting to a staff member who’d only just walked into the room also speaks volumes about how ‘hands-off’ he was with his squad. Yet, every time Rooney speaks on his catastrophic stint at Blues, he hits it home even harder.
First it was ‘the fans never gave me a chance’. Now it’s ‘everyone else was also bad’. Whatever Rooney comes up with next, we can be sure it’ll be another poor excuse that reflects his even poorer work ethic. Clearly, Tom Brady’s instincts were spot on.