Liam Rosenior recalls interesting Derby County tale about Birmingham City boss Wayne Rooney | OneFootball

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It's been a horrible start for Wayne Rooney as Birmingham City boss.

The 38-year-old has lost all three of his matches in charge of the Blues so far, with the latest defeat coming in an X-X X away at Southampton on Saturday afternoon.

Prior to that, in Rooney's opening two matches in charge, his side were beaten 1-0 by Middlesbrough away at the Riverside Stadium, and 2-0 at home at St Andrews by Hull City.

Rooney has come in for plenty of criticism from the Birmingham City supporters, and was even booed at full time of the Hull City clash.

One man who has spoken in defence of Rooney is his former Derby County assistant boss Liam Rosenior.

Rosenior is now in charge at Hull, but in an interview with The Times recently, said that Rooney does not get enough credit for his emotional intelligence, telling an interesting story in order to demonstrate his point and backing his former colleague to prove himself as a manager eventually.

“Wayne’s one of the most emotionally intelligent people I’ve ever met,” Rosenior said. via The Times.

"We were sat in the canteen at Derby and he always used to eat his lunch or breakfast sitting watching the players.

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"There was a certain player who was eating breakfast and Wayne looks across and said, ‘He’s not eating his breakfast the same as he normally does, he’s having a different breakfast and he’s eating a different way, I need to speak to him.’ Wayne pulled him aside, speaks to him and something really bad happened in his family the day before.

“People don’t give Wayne the credit that he deserves for his intelligence.He’s so street-smart, he understands people straight away.

"Wayne saw that I was outstanding at what I did in certain areas of football and he allowed me to do that, and that is top management.

We created a trust that still goes on to this day.

"He knows if he ever needed anything from me I’d be there for him and I know the same the other way around. He will prove himself as a manager over time."

Can Wayne Rooney turn things around at Birmingham City?

Coming in and replacing a popular figure in John Eustace always looked like being a tough task for Wayne Rooney, and so far, that has certainly proved to be the case.

Of course, we are only three games in, though, and there is plenty of time for him to turn things around.

The best way to do that, in terms of convincing both the players and supporters of his methods will be to get points on the board, and quickly.

However, with some challenging fixtures coming up in the next few weeks, doing so is certainly easier said than done.