Here at BoyleSports, we caught up with Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman who spoke with us on Birmingham backing Rooney, modern owners and more!
Ahead of Coventry v Birmingham at the weekend Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman met with BoyleSports for an exclusive interview and had plenty to say! Goodman discusses whether Rooney will be backed by the Birmingham board, whether modern club owners are taking learnings from Football people, whether Birmingham have found themselves in relegation battle and gives us his prediction for Coventry v Birmingham.
ROONEY BACKED BY THE BOARD ?
Yes. The owners went all in on Rooney, so I’d expect them to stick with him. They drew some terrible attention to themselves with the phrase ‘no fear football’. What is no fear football? Are they trying to say John Eustace played with fear? They certainly did not
The owners have been a bit naive in their statement, in their timing of relieving John Eustace of his duties when things were going so well, so having gone this far, I would expect them to back Wayne Rooney to the hilt. The only reason why they might not would be if they felt there was a genuine chance of actually getting sucked into a relegation battle.
That’s a long way from happening at the moment, but if results continue like this then maybe they’ll have a rethink. As things stand, though, I’d expect Rooney to see the season out and be able to build on his squad in January.
OWNERS NOT LEARNING FROM FOOTBALL PEOPLE
The owners probably got a bit excited. They’ve got the involvement of Tom Brady. They’ve thought, ‘who’s the biggest name out there in a football sense?’ I’m not sure they’ve taken advice from football people.
They’ve got Craig Gardner there in some capacity, but if the owners said ‘we want Wayne Rooney’, how much resistance is Craig Gardner going to put up? So the investment in owners like these ones are welcome, but I do think they need to try and involve football people and understand the game.
I thought there was a little bit of naivety with how they acted in relieving John Eustace and replacing him instantly with Wayne Rooney. When you look at Wrexham, because that’s what people compare American owners to, Wrexham have Shaun Harvey and Les Reed in the background. These are football people who have been in football for decades and will be there to give them guidance and advice. I’m not sure how much of that the Birmingham owners have had.
Even when you look at Chelsea with Todd Boehly – he breezed in there and he became sporting director and started buying all these players, it was a little bit scattergun. I’m not sure how much football advice he was getting at the time, but it seems to have settled down now. Birmingham need some footballing intelligence in the background.
COULD BIRMINGHAM FACE A RELEGATION BATTLE?
It’s a tough one. The teams at the bottom have given themselves a lot to do. Birmingham have a nice cushion courtesy of the points picked up by John Eustace. When I look at the table now, I see improvements in QPR, particularly, and Huddersfield are scrapping and fighting. Birmingham have a seven-point cushion, so that means they’ve got to lose three games and QPR have to win three games.
At the minute, there’s enough of a cushion there and enough fixtures over the Christmas period and the next four or five weeks for Birmingham to start winning games. Birmingham’s away form doesn’t look very impressive at all, it’s the points they’ve picked up at home, which is why drawing at home to Rotherham was a little bit of a surprise considering Rotherham’s away record.
I think Birmingham will be okay, but it might be more through luck than judgement.
COVENTRY VS BIRMINGHAM PREDICTION
I can only see a Coventry win. They’ve only lost against West Brom at home, and even in that game they were unlucky. Birmingham have lost all four away games under Wayne Rooney and they’ve only won once away all season.
So logic would point to a Coventry win. Look, it’s the Championship, it can make you look stupid, but common sense says Coventry will win that game. I’d go 3-1 to Coventry.
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