Wayne Rooney’s struggles since returning to the UK continued on Saturday following his DC United exit. Rooney left the Major League Soccer club at the beginning of October after 15 months in charge.
The former Manchester United striker was soon hired as the manager of Championship club Birmingham City. Rooney replaced John Eustace as manager at St Andrew’s but has endured a difficult start to his second managerial role in England. Rooney previously spent time as manager of Derby County before making the journey across the Atlantic in the summer of 2022.
Rooney has been in charge of five games as Birmingham manager and is yet to record a single win. The most recent game came on Saturday when the Blues lost 3-1 on the away trip to Sunderland.
Jobe Bellingham had opened the scoring for Sunderland at the Stadium of Light before Koji Miyoshi equalized for Birmingham. However, an own goal from Dion Sanderson followed by an Adil Aouchiche strike handed Rooney’s team another defeat.
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After a disappointing end to his time in the US, Rooney has won just two of his last 17 games as a manager. It was the fourth loss in Rooney’s short stint as manager of Birmingham, with the only game to not end in defeat coming in a 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town. The Blues have also lost games to Middlesbrough, Hull City and Southampton since Rooney took over.
Birmingham will now have a brief hiatus from action on the pitch as the club and the rest of the Championship have the third international break of the season. Rooney will now be looking to prepare his players for the club’s next game which comes at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Nov. 25.
After the game, Rooney was asked about how important the forthcoming international break will be for himself and his players. The ex-Man United striker pointed to the positive signs that he has seen during his relatively brief time with the club so far as a sign of things to come.
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“We’ve got a four-month block really after this international break,” Rooney told Sky Sports after Birmingham’s loss to Sunderland on Saturday.
“Some of the players will be on schedules to work, to build on fitness and to help us pick up points after the international break.
“We’ve had a really difficult run of games which you’d expect in the Championship. We’ve had a tough run of games but I’m seeing really big improvement in the team and we need to start turning that into results.”
The hiring of Rooney came just weeks after Birmingham welcomed NFL legend Tom Brady as an investor. The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback became a minority owner of the Championship club and was also named as the chairman of the newly-formed advisory board at St Andrew’s.
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