Rooney was shown the door by the Pilgrims on New Year's Eve to end another short stint as a head coach and his future in management now looks bleak
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The writing had been on the wall for some time for Wayne Rooney at Plymouth Argyle. It was a bit of a surprise their unhappy marriage lasted as long as it actually did.
Rooney and Plymouth officially agreed to part ways on New Year's Eve, though reports suggest there was a pretty one-sided argument to that arrangement, with the 39-year-old effectively sacked. An unforgettably forgettable 25-match spell at Home Park was brought to a premature end.
There's been a familiar theme that has followed Rooney throughout his relatively short time in management, and it's not a particularly positive one. Wherever he has gone, chaos has ensued in such visceral contrast to his esteemed playing career.
With Rooney now out of a job again, now is the time for him to reflect on what he really wants from football.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images SportEarly promise has faded
When Rooney returned to England from Major League Soccer in 2020, it was speculated it was with a move into management in mind. He signed a player-coach deal with Derby County in January of that year and was instantly made captain by then-manager Phillip Cocu, and it was immediately speculated Rooney would be the one to succeed the Dutchman on the occasion of his Pride Park departure.
Indeed, Cocu was sacked early on during the 2020-21 season, with Rooney given the opportunity to lead a four-man staff including Liam Rosenior, Shay Given and Justin Walker. The situation was far from ideal though, as the Rams sat bottom of the Championship and were on the brink of financial ruin.
Reports began to swirl that Rooney had been completely consumed by Derby's crisis, that he was sleeping on a sofa at the training ground in order to maximise his time helping them avoid relegation. The Rams survived on the final day of 2020-21, but were handed an impossible task of repeating that feat the following year, chalking up 21 points of deductions as a result of financial mismanagement. Rooney continued to fight for Derby, though could not stave off such an inevitable relegation this time around. Without those deductions, bare-bones Derby would have comfortably survived, and he resigned shortly after their drop into League One was confirmed.
Rooney's next venture saw him return to MLS with D.C. United, who were struggling to achieve playoff status. In one-and-a-half years back in the American capital, he failed to edge them any closer to that dream and again walked away.
And then his career began to spiral. He was named the unpopular replacement for John Eustace at Birmingham City in October 2023 under their new American ownership, headlined by minority investment from NFL legend Tom Brady. Rooney signed for the Blues amid an unlikely push for the Premier League, only to be fired 15 games later with the club on a one-way train to League One.
That's why it was such a shock Plymouth took a punt on him so quickly after bursting into the flames of the St Andrews inferno. Barely six months had passed from leaving Birmingham to taking the reins down at Home Park. That's why it wasn't such a shock when everything went up in smoke again.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportNumbers don't lie
When you lay Rooney's managerial career out with the context, it's pretty damn wincing as it is. When you strip that back and look at the cold, hard numbers, it's excruciating.
As we move into 2025, Rooney has overseen 178 matches as a manager or head coach, which is fairly impressive considering he hasn't even turned 40 yet. His record of 45 victories, 46 draws, 87 losses and a winning percentage of only 25.4, however, is not.
Across four different clubs, he has failed to instil any sort of winning mentality. In the cases of Derby and Plymouth, whose squads were among the worst in their division at the time, that's understandable, but no such leeway or sympathy will be found over the disasters of his D.C. United and Birmingham failures, where matters were actively made worse by his presence. There is nothing that defines a Rooney team but losing.
Time and age are on Rooney's side, though there's such a vacuum of evidence to this point he can be a winning manager regardless of situation or environment, and he's now more likely to drive suitors away with another horror spell added to his CV.
Getty ImagesEngland's 'golden generation' problem
Rooney, in his defence, is not alone in this circle of strangely unsuccessful managers. Many of his former England team-mates have also moved into management only to discover life wasn't as rosy on the other side of the chalked white lines.
One of Rooney's final games at Plymouth saw him destroyed by Frank Lampard fresh into his days at Coventry City, returning to the Championship having managed Chelsea twice and Everton after his last stint in the second tier with, ironically, Derby. The former midfielder's stock has significantly fallen over the last four years having initially established himself as an up-and-coming coach capable of blooding young talent into senior setups.
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard is similarly enduring a climbdown after ending Rangers' nine-year wait for a Scottish title, flaming out at Aston Villa and now struggling to redeem himself in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ettifaq. The less said about Gary Neville's time at Valencia, the better.
It's a common and recurring narrative among England's 'golden generation', and when you consider how vocal those stars have been about the reasons behind their national team failures, perhaps it's easy to understand why. That side failed to connect on a human level, and that appears to have seeped through into their managerial styles, bringing a cold-shoulder approach that has led to frustration with players who are lesser than they were. In the case of Rooney, he is said to have suffered from a case of 'Glenn Hoddle syndrome' in which he may still have been better than some of his Plymouth charges.
Getty Images SportReturn to punditry?
So if Rooney has no future in management, what else can he do to bide his time? Fortunately, there are a few options for him to mull over.
reported on Tuesday that he could be in line for a return to TV punditry, with a source confirming his approval rating remains high in that arm of the industry.
"Wayne is regarded as one of the best pundits in the business," a TV insider said. "He's very, very knowledgeable about the game. And even though he's actually quite a shy person, he really feels at home in a TV studio. It's been a rubbish end to 2024 for Wayne, but he's not going to be out of work for long. He'll be offered punditry work straight away and there's interest from Sky in a potential long-term deal to tie him down as a pundit.
"Wayne still harbours ambitions of making it as a manager. But, like Gary Neville, it might end up being the case that he can carve out a more successful and lucrative career as a pundit rather than as a manager in the dugout."
At worst, Rooney should at least be good for a quote about what the hell's going on at former club Manchester United, with so many other high-profile figures associated with the club wading in on their demise. Now that he's free from the neutral shackles of management, he can properly articulate what he feels.