ROONEY RAMS HOME HIS POINT
Derby boss urges owners to up their game
WAYNE ROONEY has demanded the Derby hierarchy sort out the club’s future.
Rookie boss Rooney kept the Rams in the Championship on the final day with a point at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
The survival shoot-out ended with the Owls relegated after a dramatic game.
It was a huge relief to Derby after a torrid season in which billionaire Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan, a cousin of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour, pulled out of a protracted takeover.
Chairman Mel Morris still wants to sell and is in talks with Spanish businessman Erik Alonso, 29, a former boxer, who has Indonesian backers.
Rooney, in charge since November, said: “We need clarity, it’s been difficult.
“I know what’s going on in terms of how we’re looking to move forward – but it needs to happen quickly because we can’t afford to allow this club to be in the position we’ve been in this season.
“We cannot have any more mess-ups. I’ve had plans in place for next season. We need everything to be sorted out from the people above me to make sure it allows me to do the job to the best of my ability.”
Since taking control in 2015, Morris has invested more than £200million at Derby in the pursuit of promotion to the Premier League. Rooney needed heroes to step up on Saturday as Derby trailed twice – and he got them from players at each end of the pitch.
Martyn Waghorn was the man of the match, scoring twice and providing an assist for Patrick Roberts – despite a stretcher being brought on for the striker in the first half when he collided with a post.
Sam Hutchinson had opened the scoring for the Owls, who went ahead again through goals from Callum Paterson and Julian Borner. But Waghorn’s second levelled at 3-3. He was replaced in the 81st minute by defender Curtis Davies, 36, who ignored medical advice after surgery on his Achilles in December to return and use his experience to help negotiate six minutes of added time for the draw that kept Derby safe.
DERBY (4-2-3-1): Roos 7; Byrne 7, Edmundson 7, Clarke 7, Forsyth 3 (Buchanan 73); Knight 6 (Bird 61, 6), Shinnie 8 (Jozwiak 73); Roberts 7, Waghorn 9 (Davies 81), Lawrence 7; Kazim-Richards 7. Goals: Waghorn 49, 78 pen, Roberts 52. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (3-4-3): Westwood 6; Borner 7, Dunkley 7 (Harris 87), Hutchinson 7; Palmer 6, Pelupessy 6 (Green 90), Bannan 8, Reach 7; Paterson 7, Windass 6, Rhodes 7 (Kachunga 79). Goals: Hutchinson 45, Paterson 62, Borner 69.