Wayne Rooney has bitten back at Tom Brady over comments aired in a recent documentary depicting their short spell working together at Birmingham.<\/p>\n
Brady, the legendary NFL quarterback and winner of seven Super Bowls, is heard during Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues<\/a>, to question Rooney when he was manager. \u201cI\u2019m a little worried about our head coach\u2019s work ethic,\u201d Brady tells his business manager, Ben Rawitz. \u201cI mean, I don\u2019t have great instincts on that.\u201d<\/p>\n That follows a terse encounter between Rooney, the five-time Premier League winner and Manchester United record goalscorer, and Brady before they attend a meeting with the squad. Rooney was sacked after two wins in 15 matches. Brady was at the training complex in his capacity as a minority owner, and as an adviser to the majority owner, Tom Wagner.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make this a world-class team,\u201d Brady says in the \u00adintroduction to a series that begins with the club\u2019s relegation from the Championship. Rooney, \u00adrelaunching his own media career with a BBC-affiliated podcast<\/a>, has had his say.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Tom came in once, which was the day before a game where the days are a little bit lighter anyway, and I don\u2019t think he really understood football that well,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what he does understand is \u2026 he\u2019s a hard worker \u2013 we know that.\u201d<\/p>\n Rooney defended his short spell in the second city, saying: \u201cWhen I went into Birmingham, they were in a mess really. Hence the fact that the players weren\u2019t really the players who could take the club forward. You had Tony Mowbray, Gary Rowett after me, who also struggled as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Brady is also heard to refer to \u00adBirmingham players from the 2023\u201124 relegation campaign as \u201clazy and entitled\u201d.<\/p>\n The documentary\u2019s brief \u00admeeting of the pair appears to be a case of two \u00adformer sportsmen taking their next career steps and struggling to find the other\u2019s wavelength. Rooney said: \u201cFootball is not NFL \u2013 NFL works for three months a year. Players do need rest as well, so I think he\u2019s very unfair, the way he\u2019s come out and portrayed that.\u201d Brady, as a serial winner, would have played seasons spanning from September to February.<\/p>\n Last season, Rooney was briefly the manager at Plymouth<\/a> while \u00adBirmingham, after a summer of heavy spending, were promoted<\/a> under Chris Davies as champions, collecting a record 111 points. Rooney was happy to offer credit for that revival.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n