Wayne Rooney sets sights on Premier League with Birmingham

Wayne Rooney has emphasised how much he is relishing the challenge he has taken on as boss of a Birmingham outfit with sights very much set on the Premier League.

The former England captain was appointed as Blues’ new manager on Wednesday on a three-and-a-half year deal after leaving DC United last weekend.

That was two days on from the Midlands club, who were taken over by US-based Shelby Companies Limited in July and had seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady become a minority owner the following month, sacking boss John Eustace while lying sixth in the Championship table.

Wayne Rooney. Birmingham City Manager. pic.twitter.com/M5zA0drqyo

— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) October 12, 2023

Rooney returns to management in his home country having previously been in charge at Derby from 2020 to 2022, and he told a press conference at St Andrew’s on Thursday: “I think for myself firstly to get back into English football is great, it’s what I’ve wanted to do.

“I’ve had opportunities over the last four, six weeks at other clubs as well, to do that. But I think since speaking to Birmingham and seeing the ambitions of the club, where they want to go, where they want to get to, it excited me.

“I want to be successful, it’s clear this club wants to be successful, and everything we spoke about really was very similar. It was a really easy decision once I’d spoken to them.

“That’s the goal – for the club, for myself, is to get this club back to the Premier League, of course. I think there’s a lot of work to be done throughout the football club.

“The Premier League is where we want to get to, it’s an ambition of mine, one of the club’s, and we’re putting everything in place to make sure we do that in the near future.

“We’ll push for it (this season), of course. It’s a challenge, and something we’ll certainly push for. I’m committed, I’m ready to take this club forward, excited by this challenge…and looking forward to taking (it) on.”

When asked about taking over a club that has been doing well, Rooney said: “Of course it’s more pressure, which I love. I love the fact we’re in a good position.

“I love the pressure of it. That’s something I’ve dealt with since I was a young kid coming through at 16, so that’s nothing new to me.

WR: “To get back into English football is great. Since speaking to Birmingham and seeing the ambitions of the Club, it excited me. I want to be successful; the Club wants to be successful. I am excited to get going and really look forward to the first game.” pic.twitter.com/9rl85wEnDQ

— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) October 12, 2023

“Who it might be new to is some of the players, so my job is to make sure I get them ready for that and to go out and be successful.”

The former Everton and Manchester United forward – who it emerged had got to work before 7am that morning – revealed he had spoken to Brady, and said: “It’s great to have him at the football club. He’s very ambitious to move this club forward. It’s clear, he’s fully involved in developing the club.”

An associate of the ownership is Steven Knight, the creator of Birmingham-set Peaky Blinders, which Rooney said was “one of the best television shows I’ve watched in the last 10 years”, before adding: “He actually gave me one of the caps, which I certainly wasn’t going to wear to this press conference! But I’m sure I’ll find time to put it on.”

When Birmingham sacked Eustace, chief executive Garry Cook said there had been “a misalignment with the leadership of the club”.

Cook, who joined Rooney at Thursday’s press conference, was asked to expand on that, and said: “We turned up on July 13, and the first person you meet is the manager.

“I want to make it very clear, John has ambition – I don’t want to make it sound as if John didn’t have ambition. But as we went through a time period, we started to look at our own ambition and decide what we wanted to do. Then you go round the football club and ideate who is on board.

“As we go through the organisation, we have to share the ambition, and that alignment means that perhaps our ambition was a little higher.”