Adam Rooney seals deal at Birmingham City
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ADAM Rooney jumped at a chance to return to the English Championship when he last night (Wednesday) joined Birmingham City.
Caley Thistle’s top scorer for the past three seasons rejected the chance to sign a new deal at Inverness and turned down the offer at League Two club Crawley Town, where his former ICT boss Craig Brewster is now a first-team coach, to land a surprise move to St Andrews.
Birmingham, who were relegated from the Premiership in May, are seeking a quick-fire return to the top-flight and Rooney’s 47 goals in two years in Scotland caught their attention as they moved swiftly to land the Dubliner on a two-year deal.
Former Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton last week replaced former Scotland, Rangers, Hibs and Motherwell boss Alex McLeish at Birmingham after his controversial move across the city to fierce rivals Aston Villa.
For Rooney, the opportunity to prove himself again at Championship level was too good to refuse after previously being with Stoke City from where he joined Caley Thistle for £50,000 in 2008.
Caley Jags boss Terry Butcher wished Rooney well, adding: “Adam was fantastic for the club and I would like to think we were fantastic for him.
“It just shows when you come to Caley Thistle you can get a move to a big club in England. A lot of our boys have been in contact with him to wish him well and he’s always going to be welcome in Inverness. The Adam Rooney era is over and we’ll now have to find another one to fill the void.”
Butcher, meanwhile, lost out on 21-year-old Accrington Stanley striker Terry Gornell, who opted to join League Two side Shrewsbury Town.
