Manchester United’s pre-season tour has offered fans plenty of talking points, from the club’s younger talents stepping up to tactical tweaks under Ruben Amorim.
The focus has also remained on potential outgoings, with Antony, Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia all expected to depart the club.
Meanwhile, former United stars are staying in the headlines.
Off the pitch, Amazon Prime’s latest football docuseries has captured attention—this time dragging a Red Devils legend into an uncomfortable spotlight.
And it’s none other than Wayne Rooney who finds himself at the centre of Tom Brady’s explosive verdict.
In a new Amazon Prime documentary due out on Friday, NFL icon Tom Brady questions Wayne Rooney’s commitment during his brief stint as Birmingham City manager.
Tom Brady, a minority owner of the club since August 2023, raised eyebrows in the series by saying, “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 didn’t hold back in his assessment of the players, as per the BBC, labelling them “lazy and entitled” after a visit to the training ground in November last year.
The footage shows uncomfortable exchanges between Brady and Rooney, including the former United and England striker outlining what he believed was holding the club back: “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.”
Brady is later seen observing a session and concluding: “We’ve got a long road ahead.”
The club’s dramatic fall into League One—after seven managers in 10 months—highlighted the chaos that followed Knighthead Capital Management’s takeover.
Brady now admits, “There was some good advice that I got that was like, ‘listen, don’t go in there and make these big, sweeping changes—we make sweeping changes.’”
Rooney, controversially appointed just two months after Brady’s arrival, lasted just 83 days, with the team plummeting from sixth to 20th in the Championship.
At the time, Rooney said 13 weeks was “not sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed”.
In the series, Blues fan Paul Collins claims the hire was more about fame than football: “What qualifies Wayne to manage Birmingham City? Nothing.”
Brady seems to agree, stating: “We’ve got to change all the people that are associated with losing… there’s going to be a lot of people gone.”
That summer, Birmingham invested £30 million in new players—an all-time high for a League One side—and stormed to a record-breaking 111 points the following season.
Adding to the embarrassment, one scene shows Brady unable to locate the training ground.
His manager jokes: “That’s the owner right there, he doesn’t know where his training facility is,” while later calling it a “high school”.
During another visit, Brady even has to ask, “What’s the other team here?” before following up with, “Is Aston Villa in the Premier League?”
While Rooney’s legacy at United remains intact, this Amazon Prime series paints a brutal picture of his early managerial setbacks—and Brady doesn’t hold back.
