He never said there was. He said there is often a difference between how outsiders perceive a manager and how a club's own fans do.
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[Football] Birmingham Sack Rooney (02/01/2024)
- Thread starter Leekbrookgull
- Start date
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You appear to have almost willfully missed the point I was trying to make. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT dismissing any of those things, I am and will forever rate Hughton as one of our greatest ever managers.
The point I was making was that looking from externally, you ONLY see those highlights and thus the decision is ridiculous (I'm assuming that you were fuming that he was fired, right? And all this progress under Potter and De Zerbi would have happened anyway?) but it's always more complex than that. Although I was shocked at the time and disagreed with the timing, we had noticeably stopped progressing and, not only that, were in very real danger of starting to go backwards.
The comparison was also clearly not with Rooney, but with Eustace.
Honestly, did you even read my post?
mikeyjh
Well-known member
Impossible to know! What I would say is that while his Derby team could be characterised by fight, grit etc etc, it wasn't particularly a tacticul masterpiece. Among Derby fans Rooney took the credit for sure but, as you allude, Leam was hugely respected.
I would be fuming if I was him as well. Especially not even getting one Transfer Window to improve the Team - All of that said. He took over a team that was 6th in the League and doing well so the players at his disposal were obviously capable at that level of competing quite simply because they were competing fairly well at that level before he arrived.
All this trying to play out from the back doesn't work at that level - You need good footballing defenders to be able to do it. Clubs with bang average players just harass them and close them down and steal the ball from them in advanced positions. I watched Birmingham against Stoke over the Holiday period and Birmingham were absolutely abysmal - Owners deserve all they get when they try to thrust their Club into the Press Limelight by appointing a ''Darling of the Media'' due simply based on their playing career. They got what wanted. Media Exposure but they forgot that what comes with that is ''Media Scrutiny''
Birmingham have done the right thing in sacking Rooney - But that still doesn't mean that I thing Rooney shouldn't be aggrieved. He has every right to be simply because he didn't get a transfer window. They probably thought, they didn't see enough during his tenure to trust him with their money in the transfer market
Neville's Breakfast
Well-known member
I’m not so sure about that. Poyet had Brighton playing passing football from the back in L1 and it was pretty successful. Lots of teams play that way now in the Championship eg Southampton and Leicester. Lewis Dunk has gone from last ditch shot stopper to world class under de Zerbi. He acknowledges it himself and also the massive task he and the others had in understanding the new tactics when RDZ came in. Maybe it has more to do with the capabilities of the coach than with the playing style or players themselves.
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I actually went to the Birmingham v Stoke game. They were a bit unlucky at the start but once they went behind they were, as you say, abysmal. No confidence, no identity, no energy, nothing. The atmosphere was getting steadily more toxic throughout the game and plenty near me left once the third goal went in on about 65 minutes.
Having witnessed that, it was no surprise he didn’t last long afterwards.
Yes but way back then - not many teams were doing it then but once Pep's teams started to press teams who had the ball anywhere on the pitch and when people are watching ''the pressing game'' on the TV every week and players and Managers see the success it can bring. Teams need to have the players to do it now
crodonilson
He/Him
Birmingham City Football Club are the very epitome of the sleeping giant, it's a great job for any manager. When St Andrews is rocking it really is rocking.
Top bombing. I genuinely thought someone had lost their tiny mind till I saw it was you, posting.
I think it’s a fair comment though. I have been to some games there like the Villa games in the early 2000s or the Carling Cup semi final against West Ham and the ground was literally shaking (probably structural defects!)! I have been to around 125 grounds home and abroad in much bigger grounds than St Andrew’s but would put those games as some of the loudest I have been to anywhere. And it’s not some guy banging a drum to get the kids up for it, the entire ground was rocking for virtually the whole game - I doubt there have been too many such occasions in the last decade though!
Tony Mowbray appointed, looks like a relatively safe pair of hands in comparison to his predecessor!
GT49er
Well-known member
Oh dear - going from Fantasy Celeb. Manager madness to a safe pair of hands that have had some success in the past, but not much lately as football has moved on from his strengths.
"When St Andrews is rocking it really is rocking" - not for a while, I don't expect.
tigertim68
Well-known member
- Sep 3, 2012
- 2,329
Good appointment, knows what he is doing
Probably fair, did well at Sunderland & Blackburn - most fans want him back!
The Hermit Kingdom
Active member
- Oct 29, 2023
- 157
The white dinosaur treadmill continues unabated - Allardyce, Mowbray, Pulis, Phil Brown, Hodgson, Warnock (retired but never say never)....zzzzzzzzzzz
He seems to be popular wherever he’s been though. Flicking at the Sunderland forum, they seem quite upset that he was fired.
