Wayne Rooney eyes Premier League return as he relishes ‘pressure’ of Birmingham job

Rooney takes over Birmingham with the club sixth in the Championship after a good start to the season
Matt Verri12 October 2023

Wayne Rooney is eyeing his first experience of managing in the Premier League as he targets promotion with Birmingham City.

Only a few days after leaving DC United, Rooney was confirmed as Birmingham’s new boss on Wednesday, signing a three-and-a-half year deal with the Championship side.

His previous experiences of managing have come in the Championship and League One with Derby County before his move to the MLS, and Rooney is confident he can fulfill his own ambition by ending Birmingham’s 12-year wait for a top-flight return.

“The goal for the club and myself is to get this club back to the Premier League,” Rooney said.

“There is a lot of work to be done throughout the football club but the Premier League is where we want to get to.

“It’s an ambition of mine and it is an ambition of the club’s, and we are putting everything in place to make sure we do that in the near future.”

Rooney’s appointment came after Birmingham made the decision to sack John Eustace, who had led the club to back-to-back wins to leave them sixth in the Championship table.

The pressure is therefore on Rooney to ensure that good form is maintained, but the 37-year-old was quick to point out that high expectations were nothing new to him.

“It’s more pressure as well, which I love,” Rooney said.

“I love the fact we are in a good position. I love the challenge and I love the pressure of it, and that’s something I’ve dealt with since I was a young kid coming through at 16.

“It’s nothing new to me, but it might be new to some of the players. My job is to make sure I get them ready for that and really get them ready to go out and be successful.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in