NFL legend Tom Brady has questioned Wayne Rooney’s attitude during the ex-England captain’s tenure as manager of Birmingham City, where Brady is a minority owner.
In a new Amazon Prime documentary series, due to air on Friday, seven-time Super Bowl winner Brady tells colleagues: “I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic,” before adding: “I mean, I don’t know, I don’t have great instincts on that.”
Brady, who also calls Blues players “lazy and entitled” in the series, made his comments about Rooney following a visit to the club’s training ground in November 2023.
Filmed conversations between the former quarterback and then manager Rooney appear awkward.
In one exchange, the ex-Everton and Manchester United striker tells his employer about some of the cultural problems he perceives at the club.
“Why they’re playing in the Championship and not the Premier League,” Rooney says, “is because… we’ve all passed a ball, kicked the ball and run, but it’s a focus, concentrated for 90 minutes.”
In scenes that follow, Brady is filmed watching a training session, saying: “We’ve got a long road ahead.”
The retired quarterback – widely considered the best player in NFL history – became a minority owner in the club in August 2023, following a takeover the previous month by Knighthead Capital Management LLC, co-founded by financier Tom Wagner.
The club were relegated to League One in the first year under their new ownership after going through seven managers in 10 months.
Two months after Brady arrived in 2023, manager John Eustace was controversially replaced by Rooney, with the Blues sitting sixth in the Championship.
However, with the club then plummeting to 20th in the table, Rooney only lasted 83 days in charge at St Andrew’s.
At the time, Rooney said that he did not feel 13 weeks was “sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed”.
