Wayne Rooney's former strike partner boldly claims he can still become Man Utd manager one day despite being brutally sacked by Tom Brady's Birmingham City after nightmare spell in charge

The Tom Brady-owned Championship club recently parted ways with Wayne Rooney after just 13 weeks of his appointment due to a series of poor performances that saw the team drop down to 20th in the league table, after initially placing sixth.

But despite his brutal sacking by the Championship club after a dire string of results, Rooney's former United team-mate Berbatov has backed him to manage the Red Devils one day. The ex-Bulgaria international also believes that his former colleague should have been given more time to prove himself.

Speaking to Betfair, Berbatov said: "It's a very tricky situation. Birmingham were sixth when Wazza took over, and now they're 20th in the table. It's a major disappointment to go from the top six to 20th and the statistics speak for themselves - he only won twice in 15 matches. It's difficult to defend that. On the other hand, he did not have the time to prove himself. In today's football, though, the most important thing is the results. You need to get the results first to give yourself time to build on your vision. You can't build on your vision while going through bad results. Unfortunately, you don't get time so easily in football.

"Maybe if he was given more time he would have turned things around, but again, the results are the most important thing in modern football. If the other results in the league were different and even if you're losing games you don't drop down the league, you stay in midtable, then maybe it's going to be a different picture. But Birmingham are near the bottom of the table and they have big ambitions, so it's led to the decision to sack Wazza. It's a pity."

He added: "I sympathise with him because I know he wants to be a manager and one day maybe he'll be the manager of Man United - I still stick to that. His time at Birmingham shows every footballer who'd like to go into management that even if you're a big name, it can't save you from the sack."

The Blues have been linked with a move for several managers, although they have reportedly narrowed down their shortlist to two names, former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray and ex-Stoke City manager Gary Rowett.