Wayne Rooney: Birmingham City squad ready for hype with new boss - John Ruddy
- Published
John Ruddy has played more than 500 games in his professional career
Birmingham City goalkeeper John Ruddy said the squad were prepared for the dramatic increase in attention on the club with the arrival of Wayne Rooney as manager.
Blues lost their first match under Rooney, 1-0 at Middlesbrough on Saturday, three days after the former England captain's appointment.
Rooney takes charge of his first home game against Hull City on Wednesday.
"It's going to take time and I think everyone's aware of that," Ruddy said.
"It's a big week because we haven't got a massive amount of time to keeping working on it.
"We have to make sure we get our ideas right, maintain that effort and level, then our quality will come through.
"It's the same when any manager comes in with a new team and new ideas - you have to adapt as quickly as possible.
"It's the finer details moving up the pitch and making sure we're a little bit more clinical in the final third and in looking after the ball better. I think our defensive structure has always been there."
Rooney's arrival came just 48 hours after the surprise sacking of head coach John Eustace, who had guided Blues to sixth in the Championship table after 11 games and steered the club through a turbulent time off the pitch in his 15 months at St Andrew's.
Ruddy, 37, was one of Eustace's first signings, joining on a free transfer from Wolves in July 2022 and, although he was sad to see his old boss go, he knows that is all part of the game.
"In modern-day football, changes happen quite often and I don't think anyone rests on their laurels," Ruddy told BBC Radio WM.
"You don't have much time to hold affection for individuals. I got on really well with John and his staff and I thought there were top drawer.
"Things move on very quickly and we've got a new group of coaching staff who are working very hard to improve us as a group and as individuals.
Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney won 227 England caps between them
Squad were prepared for Rooney hype
Some familiar faces have accompanied Rooney to Birmingham, with his former England team-mate Ashley Cole and ex-Manchester United colleague John O'Shea part of the coaching set-up.
The high-profile trio have been charged with delivering Blues' new American owners' wish for Premier League football and balancing that with the huge increase in global interest around the club generated not only by them but also the involvement of NFL legend Tom Brady as an investor and advisory board chairman.
But Ruddy says the squad were ready for the surge in interest once Rooney and his coaching staff were named.
"Everyone knows who he is and the coaches he's brought in - they've been fantastic in their own right in their careers," he said.
"So the level of attention has risen dramatically and that was something we had to expect and something that was always going to happen.
"They are here to work - they're very good coaches and work well together - and it's just about getting everything across to the players."
Having suffered a narrow defeat in their first game under 38-year-old Rooney, Ruddy is confident they can put on more of a show in front of their own fans against Hull.
"That's the good thing about the Championship, you don't have much time to dwell," he said.
"A game under the lights at St Andrew's is always a special occasion.
"We are still unbeaten in the league at home and we need to make sure we start with the right tempo and intensity.
"Even when John was here, we always had a target of pushing as high as we could up the table - that's not going to change, regardless of who the manager is."
Birmingham City are seventh in the table on 18 points.