Brady queries Rooney’s ‘work ethic’ at Birmingham

During Wayne Rooney’s time as Birmingham City manager, where Brady is a minority owner, NFL legend Tom Brady has questioned Wayne Rooney’s attitude.

In a new Amazon Prime documentary series that will debut on Friday, Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, says, “I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic,” before adding, “I don’t have great instincts on that.

Following a visit to the club’s training facility in November 2023, Brady made his comments about Rooney. He also refers to Blues players as “lazy and entitled” in the series.

The former quarterback and his manager, Rooney, appear awkward on camera.

The former Manchester United and Everton striker tells his employer about some of the club’s cultural issues in one exchange.

Because we’ve all passed a ball, kicked the ball, and ran, Rooney claims, but it’s a focus that lasts 90 minutes. “They’re playing in the Championship, not the Premier League,” he says.

Brady is filmed watching a training session during the subsequent scenes, saying, “We have a long way to go.”

In August 2023, the retired quarterback, who is regarded as the best player in NFL history, became a minority owner of the organization following Knighthead Capital Management LLC’s (now owned by Tom Wagner) takeover of the same company last month.

After working with seven managers in ten months, the club was relegated to League One in its first year.

The Blues were ranked sixth in the Championship two months after Brady arrived in 2023 when John Eustace was controversiously replaced as manager.

Rooney only lasted 83 days in charge of St Andrew’s, the club then dropping to 20th in the table.

Fans of the Blues speculated during the series that the ownership wanted to “put a load of eyes on Birmingham City” by claiming that the appointment had been motivated by a desire to hire “one of the most recognisable English footballers of the last generation.”

What makes Wayne a good manager of Birmingham City, Collins asks? Nothing”.

Brady also considers the owners’ disastrous first season in charge.

He said, “You guys have time, listen, don’t go in there and make these big, sweeping changes,” according to the good advice I received.

Birmingham dropped out of English football’s top two tiers for only the third time in their history as a result of their championship demise at the end of 2023-24.

Brady blames the players for the errors he makes throughout the series.

The players are actually the ones who are being affected, he says, “because we’ve already changed the coach.”

They were entitled, and when you’re lazy and entitled, you don’t have much of a chance to succeed.

There will be a lot of people leaving this summer, according to the saying, “We have to change all the people that are associated with losing.”

The club made an unprecedented $30 million in transfers during the summer, making it the highest transfer budget in League One.

Brady’s manager Ben Rawitz makes fun of the NFL legend trying to locate the Elite Performance and Innovation Centre on a map while traveling to Birmingham’s training facility during one scene.

Rapwitz later compared the facilities to a “high school,” saying, “That’s the owner right there, he doesn’t know where his training facility is.

Wagner refutes the notion that the two clubs belong to the same class.

He claims that they did a fantastic job of bringing attention to a small club.

From our perspective, the club we have is a bit smaller than what we currently have because it’s already a very large club. More ambitious goals are being put forth for us in relation to what we’ll construct than Wrexham’s plans.