Tom Brady questions Wayne Rooney’s ‘work ethic’ at Birmingham

Birmingham City minority owner Tom Brady has questioned his side’s former manager Wayne Rooney’s “work ethic” and called some of the squad from the 2023-24 season “lazy and entitled.”

Seven-time Super Bowl champion Brady became a minority owner of Birmingham in August 2023 following Knighthead Capital Management LLC and American financier Tom Wagner’s takeover of the club.

“I’m a little worried about our head coach’s [Rooney’s] work ethic,” Brady said in an Amazon Prime documentary to launch Friday, focusing on Birmingham’s promotion to the Championship last season.

“I mean, I don’t know, I don’t have great instincts on that.”

Rooney was appointed Birmingham manager two months into Knighthead and Brady’s takeover. He went on to last just 83 days in charge as the club were relegated to League One.

“Well we’ve already changed the coach, so it’s really the players because the coach doesn’t go out there and put the ball in the goal,” Brady said after Birmingham’s relegation in his first season involved with the club.

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

“We’ve got to change all the people that are associated with losing, so I think this summer there’s going to be a lot of people gone.”

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After they were relegated in 2024, Birmingham spent a League One record on transfers and achieved promotion with an English Football League record 111 points.

Birmingham have also been busy in this summer’s transfer window ahead of their return to English football’s second tier, bringing in six players on permanent deals so far including former Premier League winner Demarai Gray as well as ex-Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi for €9 million ($10m) from Stade Rennais.

They start their season at home to Ipswich Town on Aug. 8.