Where it all went wrong for Wayne Rooney at Birmingham City

Wayne Rooney thought about training to be a lawyer during his wife Coleen’s ‘Wagatha Christie’ courtroom duel with Rebekah Vardy, the partner of former England striker Jamie.

Yet even the very best defence barristers would have struggled to make a case for Rooney to continue as Birmingham manager following his sacking on Tuesday.

Rooney departed just 83 days after he replaced John Eustace with the club sixth in the Championship. During his 15 games, Blues had the worst record in the division and are now only six points clear of the relegation zone.

Rooney claimed he had not been afforded time to stamp his mark on the club but the reality is that Birmingham have taken the only decision possible. The former England captain’s appointment has been a disaster from start to finish and Knighthead, the club’s American owners, take as much blame as the former England captain.

For this hire was based on Rooney’s stellar playing career rather than his unremarkable track record as a manager. With chief executive Garry Cook in the vanguard, Knighthead rushed into this one and have paid the price.

At his opening press conference on October 12, Rooney talked about taking Birmingham into the Premier League yet nine defeats and only two wins during his tenure looked like an express ticket to League One.

Here Mail Sport looks at how it unravelled for Rooney and examines where Birmingham go from here.

Bringing in Rooney after Eustace had secured wins over Huddersfield and West Bromwich Albion in the space of four days was strange, but even odder in the context of the fixtures to follow.

Rooney’s first five matches were against Middlesbrough, Hull, Southampton, Ipswich and Sunderland – all teams competing for promotion. Birmingham could easily