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While it’s still early days, Tom Brady has perhaps found something that he isn’t exceedingly excellent at: owning an English football club.
After just 15 games, Birmingham City Football Club has fired manager Wayne Rooney, who was the first manager appointed by the future NFL Hall of Famer and the new ownership group.
At the time of this writing, after 26 games played this season, Birmingham City sits 20th in the English Football League, the 2nd division of the English football pyramid, with 25 points. During Rooney’s tenure as manager, they fell from 6thh — which put them in position for a playoff berth to get promoted to the Premier League — to 20th and accumulated the fewest points in the league.
Birmingham City F.C., which was founded in 1875, last played in the Premier League over a decade ago back in 2011.
BIRMINGHAM SACK ROONEY 🔵
WAYNE ROONEY is out as Birmingham City manager after 15 games. Blues won fewest points in Championship over that span, falling from 6th to 20th. 😳
Tom Brady & other Birmingham owners wanted big-name hire, instead took the air out of their season. 🫣 pic.twitter.com/HwdQD2Cl5u
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) January 2, 2024
While reports indicate that Brady and the Birmingham owners were looking for a “big name hire”, Rooney’s performance as a manager (not a player) is anything but that of a big name as he had a career-winning percentage of 27% before joining the club.
To be fair to the Manchester United legend, however, many of those came with a Derby County side that were financially hamstrung and dealing with the consequences of a massive 21-point deduction penalty.
Brady officially became a minority owner and chairman of a new advisory board, in partnership with Knighthead Capital Management LLC, of Birmingham City back in August 2023. In addition to Birmingham, Brady is also a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, the WNBA team the Las Vegas Aces, the Major League Pickleball team the Las Vegas Night Owls.
The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Bucs signal-caller also infamously invested in the now-defunct crypto platform FTX and co-founded the fan engagement NFT company Autograph.
Following Rooney’s firing, former York City midfielder Steve Spooner was appointed as interim manager.