NFL legend Tom Brady has raised serious concerns about Wayne Rooney’s managerial stint at Birmingham City, where the former quarterback is a minority owner. In an upcoming Amazon Prime documentary, set to be released this Friday, Brady doesn't hold back in his assessment of the club’s decline – and of Rooney’s performance in particular.

In one of the more explosive scenes from the series, Brady is seen candidly expressing his concerns to colleagues, saying: “I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic... I don’t know, I don’t have great instincts on that.”

The seven-time Super Bowl champion made these comments following a visit to Birmingham’s training ground in November 2023. During that visit, he also criticised the attitude of the squad, describing players as “lazy and entitled.”

The documentary captures a number of awkward exchanges between Brady and Rooney, who had only recently taken the reins at St Andrew’s following the controversial sacking of John Eustace.

In one scene, Rooney attempts to explain the club’s stagnation: “Why they’re playing in the Championship and not the Premier League is because… we’ve all passed a ball, kicked a ball and run, but it’s a focus, concentrated for 90 minutes.”

Later, Brady, visibly unimpressed after observing a training session, reflects: “We’ve got a long road ahead.”

Brady joined the club as a minority investor in August 2023, shortly after Knighthead Capital Management LLC, co-founded by American financier Tom Wagner, completed their takeover. Optimism quickly faded as Birmingham City endured a nightmare season, marked by instability and poor results.

In just ten months, the Blues cycled through seven different managers. Rooney, brought in as a high-profile appointment with the club sitting sixth in the Championship, oversaw a dramatic slide to 20th. He lasted only 83 days.

Reflecting on his short tenure, Rooney stated at the time: “Thirteen weeks is not sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed.”

The documentary does not shy away from highlighting internal criticism. Long-time Blues supporter Paul Collins questions the motivation behind hiring Rooney: “What qualifies Wayne to manage Birmingham City? Nothing.” He speculates the decision was based more on star power than substance.

Brady, too, reflects on the mistakes made by the new ownership: “There was some good advice I got – ‘don’t go in there and make these big, sweeping changes, you have time.’ And of course, we made sweeping changes.”

When Birmingham were relegated to League One at the end of the 2023/24 campaign – only the third time in the club’s history they dropped out of the top two divisions – Brady placed the blame squarely on the players: “The coach doesn’t go out there and put the ball in the goal. They were lazy, they were entitled. And when you’re lazy and entitled, you don’t have much of a chance to succeed.”

He continues: “We’ve got to change all the people associated with losing. So I think this summer there’s going to be a lot of people gone.”

True to Brady’s word, the summer brought sweeping changes. Over £30 million was invested in new signings – an unprecedented figure for a League One club. The investment paid off in spectacular fashion.

In the 2024/25 season, Birmingham City stormed to the top of League One, amassing a record-breaking 111 points – the highest total ever recorded in the Football League.

The documentary also shows a lighter, though no less telling, side to Brady’s early months as owner. In one scene, while attempting to visit the club’s Elite Performance and Innovation Centre, he becomes lost, prompting his manager Ben Rawitz to joke: “That’s the owner right there – he doesn’t know where his training facility is.”

On finally arriving, Rawitz compares the facilities to a “high school.”

In another scene, Brady appears unfamiliar with the local footballing landscape, asking: “What’s the other team here? Is Aston Villa in the Premier League?”

The series draws comparisons between Birmingham City and Wrexham, the latter famously revitalised by Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. But Tom Wagner, Birmingham’s executive chairman, is quick to distance the two clubs.

“They’ve done a spectacular job bringing attention to a small club,” he says. “But what we have here is a club that’s already very big. Our ambitions are bigger than what they’ll do at Wrexham.”

He continues: “Our target isn’t Wrexham. Our target is to play Premier League football against Villa.”

The documentary promises to offer a raw, behind-the-scenes look at a turbulent chapter in Birmingham City’s history – one marked by ambition, high-profile missteps, and a dramatic fall followed by resurgence.

While Wayne Rooney’s appointment now appears to have been a short-lived gamble that backfired, the club’s strong response since relegation – including their historic points total and promotion – suggests that Brady, Wagner, and the rest of the new regime may have finally steadied the ship.

But with eyes now fixed on a Premier League return, the real test lies ahead.