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Wayne Rooney has been sacked by Birmingham after 15 games. The former Manchester United striker first entered the world of management with Derby County and performed admirably in trying circumstances.

Of course, the United record goalscorer would leave Pride Park in a cloud after The Rams went into new ownership after their administration issues.

Rooney went to the States with DC United, where he arguably didn’t get the results he would have wanted, which prompted him to leave States Side and take this job with The Blues.

Everton academy graduate Rooney replaced John Eustace, who took his former side to fifth in the table.

After Wayne Rooney’s tenure, Birmingham now find themselves in 20th position. This leads to the question, do ex-players make good managers?

Let’s have a look at some cases. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, two of England’s most celebrated midfielders, both have arguably struggled in the world of management.

Former Liverpool captain Gerrard did of course win a League title with Rangers, but in a time where Celtic weren’t as strong as they were now, it should have been more.

In the case of Gerrard’s England colleague, he did a decent job at Derby but showed that the Chelsea job was too big for him.

Granted he worked with a squad that had a transfer embargo on it, but when Thomas Tuchel came in mid-season, he helped The Blues win a Champions League.

Roy Keane is an example of another player who struggled to make the switch from player to manager.

In the case of some of these players, they have been given more than one chance to succeed, due to their status as great players.

Managers like Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp were of course and still are great managers, who were football players.

The current crop of players, or shall I say the ones retiring haven’t made the transition from player to manager.

Zinedine Zidane is one example, and what a fine example he is. The Frenchman is an elite group of managers to have won the Champions League three times.

Zidane’s former manager Carlo Carlo Ancelotti is a superb manager too. Don Carlo has won four Champions League titles, not even Sir Alex or Pep Guardiola can say they have won that many.

One of the reasons for players struggling to make the transition is due to the pressure and the need for immediate results.

Another factor is, I think ex-players are getting jobs that are too big for them in the infancy of their careers.

With the greatest respect to Gary O’Neil, he has been doing an excellent job at Wolves, where no one had any expectations for him.

Let’s be honest, I know I didn’t. O’Neil did a good job at Bournemouth too, but he would end up getting replaced by Andoni Iraola, who is settling into life at the Vitality Stadium just nicely.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments. My personal view is that a good player doesn’t make a good manager.

At one stage in the Nationwide Conference, there were some very respectable managers plying their trade there.

The new school managers, arguably want to get to the top of the ladder, before taking the other steps.

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