Birmingham City: Wayne Rooney appointment part of 'risk and reward' strategy
- Published
Birmingham City is Wayne Rooney's third job as a manager
Birmingham City chief executive Garry Cook says the club are pursuing a "risk and reward" strategy by replacing head coach John Eustace with Wayne Rooney.
The Blues parted company with Eustace on Monday after 15 months in charge, with the team sixth in the table.
And former England captain Rooney was installed three days later.
"With risk comes great reward. We know that as a board and we're not backing just Wayne, we're backing ourselves," Cook told BBC WM Sport.
"I've known Wayne since he was 16... and since then I've always stayed in touch.
"One thing you'll always find with Wayne is he'll demonstrate his aspiration and his hunger for success. We saw that when he was playing, and we're seeing that as a manager.
"But in management, you have to have all the right support, you've got to have the right owners, the right players, the right infrastructure, the right performance facilities and we will provide that for Wayne."
Birmingham won their last two matches under Eustace, including last Friday's 3-1 win over local rivals West Brom, but Cook said their decision had not been influenced by a couple of results.
"The timing is not about results, the timing isn't about position in the league," he explained.
"We're 10 points away from automatic promotion, we're 10 points away from automatic relegation - this is a very difficult division, one result, two results, didn't make a difference in the decision.
"Once we were aware that we were making a change for the future, that was the determinant, not the timing."
He added: "A lot of football clubs will leave the manager to fail before they make the decision. I don't like that, I wouldn't be disrespectful to John in that manner and as a football club, that's not the way we behave."
Rooney, 37, took charge of training on Friday and his first game in charge will be away to Middlesbrough on 21 October, following the international break.
The former Derby County boss has returned to English football following a 15-month spell in the United States, in charge of Major League Soccer side DC United.