Gary Lineker gives his thoughts on Birmingham City's decision to sack Wayne Rooney

Gary Lineker has been reacting to Birmingham City's decision to sack Wayne Rooney.

Rooney has been sacked as Birmingham City manager after just 15 matches in charge at St Andrew's. The former Manchester United and England captain has led Blues to just two wins since joining on October 11 and he has been under pressure for some time.

Supporters started to become on board with Rooney following victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff City but just 10 points out of an available 45 has seen most lose their patience. Calls for Rooney to go were very clear on New Year's Day as Birmingham lost 3-0 at Leeds United.

Match of the Day host Lineker has been giving his thoughts on the club's decision to sack Rooney on his The Rest is Football podcast recorded with Micah Richards.

Speaking on the episode, recorded just hours after Rooney's sacking, Lineker and Richards discussed Rooney's style of play, and his decision to get his team to play out from the back. Lineker said: "You have principles of play and a way of playing, but it's probably made it more difficult for him that he's come in to the club a couple of months after the start of the the season.

"You come in and you want to play in that manor of building from the back, but perhaps the players hadn't been accustomed to it previously. It would be easier if you had a pre-season to convince the players of your ideas. At least you then have a month to work with them, but if you come in two or three months into the start of the season and trying to change it [style of play] - there are so many games in the Championship, and you don't really have a week or two weeks to work on the training field to put your ethos, plan and style of football across."

He added: "I'm not making excuses for him, the results speak for themsleves, but perhaps under those circumstances you have to think of playing in a different way, but then you give up on what you believe and he's probably been fighting himslf in his own mind in how to get the best out of his team in those circumstances - so I do have a lot of sympathy for Wayne Rooney. I really like him as a guy."

You can listen to the podcast in full, here.