Rooney: I will quit playing if I get chance to manage Rams
WAYNE Rooney has revealed he is ready to retire from playing if he is offered the Derby County manager’s job on a permanent basis.
The 35-year-old former England captain and record scorer has been placed in interim charge of Derby for today’s Championship clash against Wycombe Wanderers.
The Rams are on the lookout for a new manager following the departure of Phillip Cocu and a change of ownership of the club is imminent.
Rooney, a Manchester United legend, has made no secret of the fact he wants to go into management.
So, if things go well for him is there a possibility he has played his last game in professional football?
“I think that possibility is there,” he said.
“As I have stated, I want to do this job, I want to go into management but, as I keep saying, the focus is on Saturday.
“The new owners are not yet in the club but they are days away from finalising, so I have to focus on the game.
“I am sure in the near future I will be able to answer that question in a better way for you.
“I am managing the team and if I do that on a longer scale I don’t feel it is possible for me to manage and play.
“If I’m not managing the team, I will continue to play. If I am asked to manage the team on a full-time basis then, of course, it will be the end of my playing days, yes.”
The Rams confirmed a few weeks ago that a deal had been agreed in principle to sell the club to Derventio Holdings (UK) Limited, whose ultimate controlling entity is Bin Zayed International LLC, owned by Sheikh Khaled Zayed Bin Saquer Zayed Al Nayhan.
The takeover is imminent and, asked if there had been conversations about him landing the job manager’s full time, Rooney said: “There will be conversations on that but the focus has to be on tomorrow. We cannot look too far ahead.
“The new owners will be joining, I am sure, in the next few days. Once that is complete there will be conversations, obviously, and we’ll see where that goes but we have to focus on tomorrow.”
Derby sit bottom of the Championship as they go into back-to-back home fixtures, against Wycombe today and then Coventry City on Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t sit here and say I am auditioning myself for the job, this football club deserves better than someone ‘having an audition’,” said Rooney.
“We are in a difficult moment, we all know that. Whatever happens in the future, the importance of this game as a group of players, for the club, for the fans is huge. So we have to focus on that.”
Rooney has dropped a hint about Derby’s planned business in the January transfer market.
Should he be appointed, will the former Manchester United and Everton favourite be making calls to his old clubs about the possibility of loaning players?
“We have got a good recruitment team here who are well advanced on what we need to come in in January,” said Rooney.
“They give us great options of which players are available in January.
“I am not going to sit here and say I am going to phone (Manchester United boss) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and start looking for some of his players.”