Wayne Rooney has fired back at Tom Brady after he called out his work ethic in an Amazon Prime documentary on Birmingham City.
Rooney had 15 games in charge of Birmingham between October 2023 and January 2024, replacing John Eustace when the Blues were sixth in the Championship.
But Manchester United's record goalscorer had a poor spell at St Andrews, losing nine of 15 games in charge and finishing up with a 13.3% win percentage when he was relieved of his duties.
Rooney has since endured another difficult job in the Championship and left Plymouth Argyle via mutual agreement after 14 losses in 25 games.
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Brady is a key part of the all-new Amazon Prime five-part documentary ‘Built In Birmingham: Brady & The Blues’, which gives a behind the scenes look at the club's happenings under their American owners.
In one clip, NFL legend Brady visited Rooney and the players at the training and went away unimpressed with his approach. The Birmingham minority owner commented: "I'm a little worried about our head coach's work ethic. I mean, I don't know, I don't have great instincts on that."
He also referred to their players as "lazy and entitled".
Wayne Rooney responds to Tom Brady
Rooney had remained silent but has now responded to the mark from the seven-time Super Bowl on an episode of his new BBC podcast, 'The Wayne Rooney Show'.
In the opening episode, host Kelly Somers asked the former England skipper whether they had have any issues with his work ethic during the project, leading to Rooney addressed the "unfair comment" as he expressed his disappointment.
"I saw that this week or last week, from Tom Brady," Rooney said.
"I think it was a very unfair comment. When I went into Birmingham, they were in a mess really.
"The players weren't really the players who could take the club forward and I think Tom came in once, which was the day before a game where the day is a little bit lighter anyway.
"And I don't think he really understood football that well at the time. Maybe he does now. What he does understand, he's a hard worker.
"That's why I'm really disappointed with that comment because football is not NFL. NFL works for three months of the year, players do need rest as well.
"I think he's very unfair the way he's come out and portrayed out. I respect Tom Brady massively, he's one of the greatest athletes - if not the greatest athlete of all time - and Birmingham do look like they're getting it right now which is good.
"What they have done is they got the players they needed to get out because when I was there you had Tony Mowbray, Gary Rowett after me struggled as well.
"A bit disappointed but nothing too serious so move on."
After Rooney, Mowbray and Rowett had short-lived spells with the Midlands club before they moved to appoint Chris Davies after suffering relegation to the League One.
Under the Welshman, Birmingham returned to the second tier at the first time of asking by winning League One - recording 111 points from 46 games.
Topics: Wayne Rooney, Tom Brady, Birmingham City
Josh Lawless