Birmingham City footage involving Wayne Rooney and Tom Brady causes stir online | OneFootball

Tom Brady expressed concern about Wayne Rooney's 'work ethic' shortly after his appointment at Birmingham City.

Birmingham City’s minority owner Tom Brady had doubts about Wayne Rooney’s ‘work ethic’ shortly into his unsuccessful time in charge at St. Andrew’s.

Whilst Blues are back in the Championship and aiming for the Premier League under their ambitious US owners, things didn’t initially go to plan for the group, as the side were relegated during their first season involved with the club.

A key reason for that was the highly controversial decision to sack John Eustace when the club were in the play-off places, with Rooney named as his successor.

Tom Brady questions Wayne Rooney in Birmingham City documentary

Unfortunately for Rooney, he couldn’t get a tune out of the players, and he was dismissed after just 15 games, with Blues languishing just above the relegation zone after his exit, and they would ultimately go down.

During this period, and their subsequent promotion, the Amazon cameras were following Blues on a day-to-day basis, with NFL legend Brady understandably a big part of that.

And, interesting footage has emerged from the documentary with Brady questioning Rooney after spending the day with the manager at the training ground.

“I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic. I don’t have great instincts on that," Brady said regarding Rooney.

Understandably, this footage has caused quite a stir among Birmingham, and football fans in general.

One user wrote: "He’s not wrong tbf (to be fair) just look at the coaching on display."

Another said: "I’ve always respected Tom Brady but until he is the goat (greatest of all time) of a sport like Wayne Rooney is then he can’t slander people like this imo (in my opinion)."

"He might of thought that. But I’m sure the players in the room had the utmost respect for Rooney," another wrote.

"To be fair in American Football (even at college level) the level of detail and analysis is huge compared to lower championship football, so in some ways it’s unsurprising someone only familiar with that might be disappointed. Not necessarily a fair comparison," another X user said.

Those fears were justified, with Rooney struggling, and he has since gone on to have a difficult period with Plymouth Argyle.

Birmingham City have found the right manager in Chris Davies

You can be sure that Rooney would disagree with Brady’s assessment, but it shows that the club perhaps jumped into appointing former Manchester United and England legend too quickly, something that they would no doubt acknowledge now.

There’s no denying that major mistakes were made in the first six months under the current owners, but the relegation to League One allowed them to reset and start again.

Since then, they have been bold, aggressive and the decision to bring in Chris Davies was an inspired one.

Given his lack of experience as a manager, it was a risk, and whilst he had incredible backing by League One standards, you still need to build a team that can get results - which is exactly what he did, uniting the fans and club along the way.

So, Brady and the hierarchy deserve credit for learning from their initial mistakes, and now all the focus will be on trying to reach the Premier League.