Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham City Specials

With Tom Brady having influence at play-off chasing Birmingham City, the club made the controversial decision to dismiss John Eustace despite the strong start. Wayne Rooney is the name on the lips of the Brummie faithful now, so this article looks into some of the manager specials from SkyBet.

Prior to the international break, Birmingham bounced back from a 2-0 defeat to Norwich at Carrow Road with comprehensive back-to-back victories over Huddersfield 4-1, then a 3-1 triumph over West Bromwich Albion at St Andrews. This has placed the Blues in sixth place, one point ahead of the chasing pack which includes four teams.

To be in the play-off places come Christmas day will be challenging, but the Championship is a league where anyone can beat anyone, and Birmingham City will hope they will have consolidated a place in the top six as a Christmas present for its fans.

Undoubtedly, Rooney will want to hit the ground running and get a win at the earliest possible attempt. However, it is plausible that his City side will face an uphill challenge to begin with as they travel to the Riverside to face a resurgent Middlesbrough, who’ve won four consecutive matches.

Next up is play-off chasing Hull City at home who were riding high until a humbling 0-3 defeat away to Ipswich condemned them to a first defeat since the opening day. The third game sees them face an indifferent Southampton side who are unbeaten in three matches, Rooney will hope he’s secured a victory by this point.

Birmingham haven’t lost three games in a row so far this season, so these odds would be a long shot if you feel Wayne Rooney cannot galvanise his squad enough to pick up a single point in his opening three games.

The Blues did lose twice in a row in September, away to Watford and Preston respectively. Rooney won 10 of his 34 matches at DC United, and he will look to squash any speculation that he isn’t capable for the job, especially after a valiant effort in troubling circumstances when he was Derby County manager.

Despite Birmingham being in recent good form, the odds show it’ll be very unrealistic to be victorious in all three of Rooney’s first three matches.

With the opposition he’s up against, SkyBet have given some confident bettors the chance to earn big on this one should they manage to be successful. They’ll be matching up against some other sides in good form and vying to be in the position they currently hold.

Despite the managerial merry-go-round in the modern footballing system, the odds are favourable for Rooney to still be in his post for the final Championship game of the season.

He has proven to persevere as a manager when being in adverse situations, so he won’t bail given the renewed optimism at the club. With the board's current decision to displace Eustace for the hiring of Rooney, it would take catastrophic form for Rooney to be the second manager dismissed by the Birmingham City hierarchy given the public nature of his profile.

A modest gamble at 10/3 for those who have no faith in managers being given time, SkyBet double down on the feeling that he will still be in post at the conclusion of the Championship campaign.

It might be too early to say, but the Birmingham City chiefs appear to not be hesitant when it comes to sacking the managers. Rooney averaged just over one-point per match in the MLS and has a slightly higher average with Derby County in difficult circumstances. He will have to average a much better PPG to build and mould this squad into challengers.

The one thing Rooney might have missed by being in the MLS football system is the chance of promotion to the Premier League.

Outside odds of 40/1 seem fair given the modern-day climate of football managers being dismissed. Despite this, Birmingham are still outsiders for promotion at this point in one of the most competitive leagues in the world. He will have to build on the good work of his predecessor and guide Birmingham either into the top two, or cement them in the play-offs in order for this to happen.

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