Oh the irony... Lineker tells the BBC to delete post on Rooney
Wayne slams Birmingham for giving him the boot after only 83 days
GARY Lineker urged the BBC to delete a social media post yesterday despite repeatedly failing to rein in his own controversial messages.
BBC Sport wrote a tongue-in- cheek post about Wayne Rooney’s sacking as manager of Birmingham City, saying he had been fired ‘by order of the Peaky Blinders’. The message featured the ex-Manchester United striker in a flat cap like the gangsters in the hit drama.
But Lineker, inset below, responded sternly, ‘Delete this’, and the message on X – formerly known as Twitter – was removed minutes later.
His apparent influence on the corporation’s social media output comes months after new guidelines were introduced following an impartiality row over his own anti-Tory tweets.
Last night Tory MP Jonathan Gullis told the Mail: ‘This only proves what we already know, Gary Lineker really runs the BBC after [director-general] Tim Davie surrendered to Gary’s woke warrior crusade on
X. Gary Lineker clearly thinks he is untouchable.’ Some X users were also quick to point out the irony, suggesting Lineker was ‘the unofficial boss of the BBC’. The Match Of The Day host’s social media posts have attracted controversy for their criticism of the Government’s migration policies including the plan to send small boat arrivals to Rwanda.
Last month he launched a series of personal attacks against Tory MPs, including Mr Gullis and party deputy chairman Lee Anderson. Mr Anderson said yesterday: ‘Now we know who is pulling all the strings at the BBC.
‘Instead of jumping to Lineker’s every demand, BBC bosses should work out whether his tweets are in line with their guidance and stop taking orders from him.’
It is understood the deleted BBC post, pictured right, was deemed to fall short of editorial standards. The BBC declined to comment last night.
A shocked Wayne Rooney has hit out at Birmingham after he was sacked after 83 days as manager, claiming he was not given enough time in the job.
Rooney, 38, believed he would be given the January transfer window to turn around Birmingham’s dire form.
But the former england captain was shown the door after collecting only 10 points from 15 games, which saw the Blues slip from sixth to 20th in the championship table. In a statement, Rooney said: ‘Football is a results business — and I recognise they have not been at the level I wanted them to be.
‘however, time is the most precious commodity a manager requires and I do not believe 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed.
‘It will take me some time to get over this setback. I have been involved in professional football, as either a player or manager, since I was 16.’
John eustace, sacked in october to make way for Rooney, is thought to be open to returning to st Andrew’s but it
would take a spectacular climbdown from US owners Knighthead, led by chairman Tom Wagner, to bring him back. Former Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper is being monitored by at least two Premier League clubs and is unlikely to consider a return to the Championship under such circumstances. England Under 21s manager Lee Carsley and Tony Mowbray, who was sacked by Sunderland in December, are also likely to be considered along with Jesse Marsch, who has not had a club since he was dismissed by Leeds last February. It is unclear whether Blues would consider a left-field appoint like the highlyrated German Matthias Kohler, with the 32-year-old available after leaving Dutch club Volendam last month. Rooney’s fate is thought to have been sealed late on Monday night, hours after the 3-0 defeat at Leeds which saw Birmingham fans turn decisively against their manager. Chief executive Garry Cook is not believed to have been at Elland Road but technical director Craig Gardner was in attendance.
Mail Sport understands Rooney had started to plan for January by lining up players he believed would adapt better to attacking football. Yet ultimately results and performances were so poor that the board felt they had no alternative but to act. Knighthead believe Birmingham must play a possession-based game to reach the Premier League though with only six points separating them from the relegation zone, the priority now is to escape League One. Blues players were called to a meeting at the club’s training ground near Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday morning and informed of Rooney’s departure. First-team coach Carl Robinson left with Rooney but Ashley Cole, John O’Shea and Pete Shuttleworth will stay on at least initially, to assist development chief Steve Spooner, who has been placed in temporary charge. Birmingham’s next match is at Hull in the FA Cup on Saturday before they resume league action against Swansea at St Andrew’s on January 13.