The news was no great surprise. Perhaps the timing was a little harsh, so soon after Christmas and with an upcoming January transfer window to potentially improve the team’s fortunes, but Wayne Rooney couldn’t argue against the dreadful results he’d just overseen.
Expectations for the season had been much higher, but Rooney left with the team devoid of confidence and fighting against relegation to League One.
Anyway, that was a year ago with Birmingham City, what about now? Oh.
Rooney’s departure from St Andrew’s on January 2, 2024 bears a depressingly familiar resemblance to his exit from Plymouth Argyle almost a year to the day on.
Is it a surprise to anyone? Absolutely not. In an unpredictable English football season, it was easy to predict that Rooney wouldn’t last long at Home Park.
The general consensus when he was appointed in the summer was probably: ‘Only appointed because of his name… won’t last the season’. Why was it so obvious that Rooney would flop? Because his managerial career has been one of repeated failure.
His time in management started well, with a burst of good results at Derby County in early 2021 to lift them from 24th in the Championship to 18th, before a run of one win in 15 matches saw them stay up by the skin of their teeth, just one point ahead of Wycombe Wanderers.
Thereafter? Relegation with Derby in 2022, although they would have finished 17th without points deductions; 12th out of 15 teams with DC United in MLS Eastern Conference in 2023; disaster with Birmingham last season when taking them from sixth to 20th in 15 matches; and now he leaves Plymouth bottom of the Championship table having conceded more goals (51) than any team in the top four divisions.
Plymouth’s goal difference this season is -29 (Warren Little/Getty Images)
There are some tough gigs in there, but the fact is that, in his last three jobs, Rooney has won 21 of 93 matches, a paltry win percentage of 22.5 per cent.
If his playing career had comprised stints at Barnsley and Gillingham rather than Manchester United and England, Rooney would probably not get another EFL job.
And yet in football (and most of sport), for all the data and expertise, for all the high pressure and the money at stake, owners and chairman will still appoint a manager or coach based on how good they were at kicking a ball a few years earlier.
So Rooney will likely get more work. He suggested a few months ago that the Championship isn’t as low as he’ll go in an attempt to continue his managerial career. “It’s a bug,” he said on The Overlap. “I love being involved in football. I love being around the staff and trying to better yourself. It’s something within me.
“The main thing for me is to cut out what I did as a player and you’re almost starting again as a manager. I’m right at the bottom and I want to work my way up. Whether that’s League Two, League One, the Championship, it’s all experience.”
GO DEEPER
Gone in 15 games: Why Wayne Rooney was sacked by Birmingham
Rooney deserves credit for heading to some unglamorous footballing outposts since becoming a manager. Like Frank Lampard is doing at Coventry City and Paul Scholes briefly did with Oldham Athletic, Rooney is prepared to drop down to levels he never graced as a player.
But is he making bad choices in the clubs he joins? Or is Rooney just not a very good football manager?
There is a mounting pile of evidence for the latter. That is despite being handed jobs above the level a normal rookie manager would expect to get, despite being afforded the security and faith of a huge contract at Birmingham (three and a half years), and despite roping in high-profile assistants to help him (Ashley Cole, John O’Shea and Mike Phelan, plus he benefited from having Liam Rosenior at Derby).
In his previous jobs, there were no suggestions of him being unpopular with his players, many of whom will have revered him from his playing days, but Rooney’s tactical nous and in-game management has been questionable and he was said to be hands-off in training at Birmingham, even with the attacking players.
Unfortunately, he just gives off a general impression of a man who isn’t cut out for management.
Rooney was one of the world’s most successful players, including winning the Champions League in 2008 with Manchester United (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
You worry for Rooney. Forget about the money for a minute, he comes across as quite a vulnerable guy, either to the addictions of everyday life, or to the limelight and certainly to football.
Gary Neville called Rooney the “ultimate positive person” that he has met in football and Rooney has spoken of his firm belief that he will one day be a “top manager”.
With those personality traits, you can see why he keeps going but can he give it up in the face of mounting evidence that he just might not be up to it? He probably should, but probably won’t.
Rooney is still, almost unbelievably, only 39 years old. He’s also tried his hand at punditry but, again, is not the most expressive or natural of on-screen presences, albeit there is clearly tremendous insight to be shared. He just lacks delivery, which can be worked on.
Whether the experiences at Birmingham and Plymouth have put him off management remain to be seen, but where would he go next? Back to MLS? League One? Saudi Arabia? If he really is desperate to continue he needs to make a good decision backed up by sound advice, something he has appeared to lack at various points throughout his football life.
Rooney is one of a number of players from his era who achieved so much in the game but have struggled with management.
Neville (x2), Scholes, Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Rooney… there is a common thread of having reached the top of the sport as a player but finding it impossible to replicate that as a manager.
Have they put the true hard yards in to become the very best versions of managers that they can possibly be? Have they studied the greats? Have they moulded and shaped what kind of manager and tactician they are? Have they forged a great team of coaches around them?
Maybe they have but, at the end of the day, these are all very rich men. It would be no surprise if their competitive edge had been softened.
Thank god they’ve got The Overlap.
GO DEEPER
How do you know if a football manager is actually good at their job?
(Top photo: Wayne Rooney last week; by Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)
