Birmingham City: Specific Wayne Rooney "regret" outlined | OneFootball

FLW's Birmingham City fan pundit discussed the club's biggest regret

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Birmingham City have had a whirlwind 12 months, and this time last year, John Eustace was still in charge at St Andrew's and had the club fighting for the Championship play-off places.

In the 12 months that followed, Wayne Rooney was appointed, then sacked, replaced by Tony Mowbray, who then had to step down due to ill health, replaced by Gary Rowett and relegated to League One.

Despite being in a lower division, things are a lot healthier at St Andrew's these days, both on and off the field, and Chris Davies has the Blues unbeaten in League One and looking like early favourites to win promotion to the Championship at the first attempt.

The club's ambitious owners, Knighthead Capital, have certainly put their money where their mouth is, splashing out on new signings over the summer, and have helped make amends for their decision to sack Eustace last October, a decision which ultimately cost them their Championship place.

John Eustace, Wayne Rooney situation dubbed Birmingham City's biggest regret

We asked our Birmingham City fan pundit, Mike Gibbs, about Birmingham City's biggest regret, and he pointed to last October when Eustace was sacked, despite a good start to the season, and subsequently replaced by Rooney, who endured a miserable couple of months at St Andrew's.

Speaking to Football League World, Mike said: “I think the one thing the club regrets to this day would be sacking John Eustace and specifically bringing Wayne Rooney in.

“Obviously, we were sixth in the league, went from sixth to 20th under Rooney and never really recovered, hence getting relegated, so I think that’s the biggest regret for the existing owners.

“I think it was a case of history repeating itself, because it happened when Rowett was sacked and Gianfraco Zola was brought in, so there was an element of history repeating itself.”

Relegation to League One has been a blessing in disguise for Birmingham City

Of course, no one wants to be relegated, but it's allowed Birmingham City to break out of a cycle of poor results, poor performance and a general apathy that was building at the club with no real long-term plan, and managers coming and going on a regular basis.

Blues had become perennial strugglers towards the bottom of the Championship table, and relegation has given them a new lease of life, although that could wear off if they don't make an immediate return to the Championship.

Given what's happened over the summer with the Blues' impressive recruitment drive, it's easy to forget the poor decision that Tom Wagner and Co made last October to replace Eustace with Rooney, and it feels like a lifetime ago now rather than just last year.

Birmingham City are a club on the up now, and if Chris Davies can lead them to promotion to the Championship at the first attempt, then the poor decisions made early on in Knighthead Capital's reign will be forgotten.