ROO AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET!
Player-coach Wayne insists things are on the up for rock-bottom Rams
Championship: 7pm
JAMES NURSEY and
WAYNE ROONEY has guaranteed basement club Derby will start to climb the table towards safety.
Rooney is working alongside firstteam coach Liam Rosenior, as well as goalkeeping coach Shay Given and development coach Justin Walker, following the departure of Phillip Cocu earlier this month.
They took charge of a 1-0 defeat at Bristol City last weekend and remain at the helm for tonight’s trip to Boro.
Player-coach Rooney cannot be sure of his role beyond the game as Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nahyan is close to completing a takeover from Mel Morris. But he insists the Rams will not be at the bottom much longer.
He said: “We will start winning games and will start climbing the table – I can guarantee that. We are going to Middlesbrough to put it on them and create chances.
“We have ideas how we want to play and the players need to trust what we are telling them. But also we need to trust in ourselves that these are the right ideas.”
The first priority is to end three games without scoring. But England and Manchester United record scorer Rooney insists that playing himself up front is not the solution. He said: “In my opinion the team need me a bit deeper to get us playing.”
But if Rooney is serious about becoming a manager then he will have to give up playing, according g to Boro’s veteran boss Neil Warnock. ock.
Warnock (right) said: “You u cannot manage and play at t Championship level. But he will be ready to settle down and give it a go.
“Wayne has played right at the very top, so he will know w when it’s time to stop. He will find, ind, if he is given the job, that it’s absorbing b off the field.
“It’s very difficult to maintain your fitness with all that is going off behind the scenes. Even as a young manager I remember being exhausted on certain days, and it was nothing to do with football.
“Playing is a lot different to being a manager and making the decisions yourself.
“It is something Wayne hasn’t been accustomed to.
“But he will have enough people to talk to, and one manager in particular – Sir Alex Ferguson.”