I’m gutted Birmingham sacked John Eustace… but with Wayne Rooney they now have TWO all-time greats in dressing room
THERE are plenty of people with Birmingham City at heart who are suffering mixed emotions this week — me included.
We are gutted that an excellent manager — John Eustace — has been unjustly sacked.
Yet we are equally excited about what the appointment of Wayne Rooney means for the future of the club.
There are many Blues players who are very disappointed that John has been dismissed because he is a genuinely great bloke who worked wonders as manager and created a ‘no excuses’ culture at a club where there were thousands of excuses for failure last season.
If people knew everything that was going on there, it would blow their minds.
John is a friend of mine. He was my manager at Blues last season and was a former team-mate at Watford.
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I know that being sacked in these circumstances is a tough pill for him to swallow.
The last thing he’d want is sympathy — but the whole of football knows what a great job he did.
He left with Birmingham in the Championship play-off places and his stock could hardly be higher.
I’d like to see Rangers offer him their vacant manager’s job.
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But if he doesn’t end up at Ibrox, I’m certain he will have a decent offer from another Championship club before too long.
But as soon as Blues were taken over by their new American owners, Knighthead Capital Management, you suspected that they would bring in their own manager sooner or later.
And suddenly, there are two all-time greats of English football in the Birmingham dressing room — Rooney and his assistant Ashley Cole.
And this, just weeks after legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady joined the board in a hands-on role, which has seen him helping the club with nutrition and fitness.
It’s hardly recognisable from the club I spent the last two seasons at — where half of the St Andrew’s stadium was closed and the training ground was in disrepair too.
The club have been through s***-show after s***-show for more than a decade but suddenly they are headed in an upwards direction.
I can’t pretend that I don’t feel a little bitter that I’m not involved, as a lifelong supporter of the club and having worked there through some bad times.
It’s difficult to rate Rooney’s managerial career so far — he had a lot of goodwill on his side when he bossed Derby and he impressed people by almost avoiding relegation at Pride Park despite a huge points deduction.
He has spent the last year or so in the MLS with Washington-based DC United, with limited success.
But I think this is the perfect job for him — at a club which is full of positivity, with ambitious new owners and with a team which John has left in very good shape.
If he wins promotion, he will have earned a Premier League job by right as a manager, not because of his name as a great player.
He will attract good players to the club and give it a higher profile.
When a former playing legend walks into the dressing room as manager, players will instantly respect him and give him a longer grace period — but in time he will have to prove himself to his squad, just like any other boss.
Blues fans will remember 2016, when Gary Rowett was sacked, with the club seventh in the Championship, and replaced by Gianfranco Zola.
That change went completely pear-shaped, so there are no guarantees.
But having said that, if I was still a Blues player, I would be treating this move as an almighty kick up the backside.
Those players will be thinking ‘I want to make sure I’m here for the good times because this club is really going places’.
I love the appointment of Cole. He’s an excellent hands-on coach who has just enjoyed success at the European Under-21 Championships with England as assistant to Lee Carsley.
That could open up the possibility of some great loan moves, as will Wayne’s links with Manchester United and Everton.
John O’Shea, who also had a fine career at Old Trafford and elsewhere, is also part of the coaching set-up.
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Birmingham City is a club on an upward trajectory at last.
But I also believe that John Eustace has a huge future in management to look forward to.