Birmingham City have confirmed their controversial and much criticised decision to part company with manager John Eustace, just 11 games into the 2023/24 Championship campaign.
The Blues’ impressive 3-1 defeat of midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion on Friday evening means that they head into the October international break sitting in the top six and the playoff places with five victories and three draws in those 11 matches.
Eustace took charge of the club, that was enduring persistent off-field issues, in the summer of 2022 and led them to a 17th placed finish in the second-tier last season before a fine start to this campaign.
Over the summer of 2023, Birmingham Sports Holdings’ share in the club was diluted down to 51% with Shelby Companies Ltd, an American group, purchasing a 45.64% stake. Tom Wagner, of Shelby Companies Ltd, was installed as the club’s new chairman with the group gaining media attention for the appointment of Tom Brady to the board with the American Football legend attending a Birmingham game earlier this season.
It is believed that Birmingham have already lined up Eustace’s replacement and that is the reason for the former Watford midfielder’s departure from St Andrews as former Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney is reportedly set to be appointed as their new manager.
The 37-year-old recently departed DC United, who had been manager of since July 2022 after making 48 appearances for the club between 2018 and 2019. His managerial career began in 2020 when he was player-manager at crisis club Derby County, who were eventually relegated in 2022 after a points deduction.
Rooney, who scored 53 goals in 120 caps for the England national side, has the mitigation of having to deal with problematic circumstances at both Derby and DC but does have a current win rate of 27.5% as a manager.
