I Don’t See Rooney Cutting It At Birmingham City – Jermaine Pennant

Ex Arsenal and Liverpool winger, Jermaine Pennant has come out to insist that Wayne Rooney didn’t earn his job as Birmingham City head coach. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, he recalls Birmingham sitting pretty in 6th when John Eustace was still manager, so it has definitely been a massive blunder to replace him with Wayne Rooney.

Pennant added that it might still be early days, but he does not see Rooney leading the club anywhere.

His words, “It’s sad to see what’s happening at Birmingham. John Eustace will be sitting there with a cigar and a cup of tea at home. Birmingham were sitting pretty in sixth, but they’re now 18th and eight points off relegation. That’s a catastrophe and a massive blunder. There was no reason to look at Wayne Rooney or any other manager considering what they did last season. I know it’s early days, but it doesn’t look as if it’s going anywhere. Wayne Rooney hasn’t earned the right to be given a job like this, but I thought the American owners saw him as a marquee name. They need to understand it doesn’t work like that. It’s not American football or basketball, it’s English football, and you need a manager who knows how to win games.

They’ve taken the team from sixth to 18th in a space of a month – it’s barmy! The owners should be admitting the mistakes they’ve made and not talking about their visions for the future. They’re almost fighting relegation. Getting into the Premier League is the vision – it’s a really weird one. Birmingham fans must be seething to watch this. It’s not only the results, it’s the performances. They were hard to beat before, but now they’re losing comfortably. A lot of the plight has to be down to Rooney and his staff. The club were sixth before and they were getting results under Eustace with the same players. Rooney took over a good team, and now they’re 18th. Either the tactics, formation, and selections aren’t working, and you have to look at that. Whatever the staff are doing is not working.”