John O'Shea left Birmingham City in January ruing the fact that sacked manager Wayne Rooney hadn't been granted a transfer window to address the club's frailties. Blues slid dramatically down the table from the top six and into the bottom third of the Championship after Rooney replaced John Eustace last October.
Rooney brought with him former Manchester United teammate O'Shea and ex-England colleague Ashley Cole as a part of his overhaul of the club's back-room staff, but Blues' results suffered after the switch in management and the board decided to act after the comprehensive defeat at Leeds United on New Year's Day. That decision allowed time for Rooney's successor Tony Mowbray to operate in the market as soon as he was appointed.
Blues moved to bring in Paik Seung-ho and Andre Dozzell to boost Mowbray's midfield options, as well as the Championship savvy Alex Pritchard, with whom he'd worked at Sunderland. Blues' results initially improved before Mowbray was struck down with ill health and Gary Rowett - after an initial six-game period under Mark Venus - was summoned back to the club to steer the ship for the remainder of the season.
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O'Shea, who has since taken interim charge of the Republic of Ireland in their friendly matches against Belgium and Switzerland in March as he looks to branch out into management himself, regretted he and Rooney not having the opportunity to recruit and improve the squad after it was considered that the crux of Blues' ambition when they arrived was that it'd be a long-term project - but two wins in 15 matches abruptly put paid to those plans.
“I've been involved, before Ireland, I obviously was in with Wayne at Birmingham. Obviously, it didn't go to plan in terms of you have to get results," O'Shea told William Hill's No Tippy Tappy podcast. "The short term, you need to get results in, but in the sense of what we were told, well Wayne in particular, that it's a long term plan, long term project type of thing - and then you don't even get the January window, you don't get to bring players in.
"You see what's happened now - Tony Mowbray's gone in, and obviously hopefully Tony's getting better soon. He's had a few issues, but Gary Rowett is in there now. He's had a couple of good results as well, hasn't he? They won the last one at home, to Coventry.
"We were close to a couple of big wins against Ipswich, and I think it was Plymouth away, where Krystian Bielik got sent off and he probably shouldn't have been sent off. A couple of things and if those results swing your way, it's a big momentum one. You go back to the timing of when you go into a job and times like that, you probably...look, hindsight is good.
"I don't need to answer for Wayne. He's big and bold enough to do it himself. He's 38, 39. He's had three managerial jobs. He's getting great experience. So I have no doubt when he does decide to get back in that he'll be much better for it again, as you normally would be with the more experience you gain."
O'Shea, who was encouraged to remain at Blues by Mowbray before taking his leave, did speak briefly to the Blues boss about Sunderland, where Mowbray was sacked in December and where O'Shea spent a good chunk of his decorated career playing. With former Blues academy manager Mike Dodds currently filling in for the rest of the season, the Black Cats could look to appoint another permanent manager in the summer.
“It really is an amazing club. We had an amazing time up there, but it's a tricky one," O'Shea added. "Ultimately, I'd love to be Sunderland manager, but I spoke to Tony Mowbray when he came into Birmingham about the kind of model that they have there at the minute in terms of they're really only young players. You kind of look at it, but the thing for me is, it's a great idea - on paper."
