Rooney set for Plymouth job
Former England captain eyes shock return to management Championship side finished one point above relegation
Wayne Rooney is in line to make a shock return to management at Championship club Plymouth Argyle.
Rooney, the former England and Manchester United captain, is understood to have held talks with the Argyle board this week and has emerged as the leading candidate to take charge.
Sacked by Birmingham City in January after an alarming run of nine defeats in 15 games, Rooney is keen to make a swift comeback in the technical area to rebuild his reputation as a manager.
Argyle are searching for a new manager after the dismissal of Ian Foster towards the end of the season and if, as expected, Rooney is appointed, he will be reunited with Neil Dewsnip, the club’s director of football. Rooney was at Everton’s academy as a boy when Dewsnip was in charge. The pursuit of Rooney has been driven by Argyle’s chief executive Andrew Parkinson.
Rooney, 38, was recently announced as a pundit for the BBC during this summer’s European Championship, but he has never made a secret of his desire to return to management. In February, he said: “I definitely want to get back into management. It was a setback what happened at Birmingham but I’m a fighter and I want to get back into it. You know as a manager [being sacked] is part of the job and you will have setbacks. It’s about how you bounce back. I’ve had some good time to reflect and will make sure I get it right next time.”
Rooney only lasted 83 days at Birmingham City after succeeding the popular John Eustace, with the club firing him on Jan 2 after a 3-0 defeat at Leeds.
Birmingham were eventually relegated to League One, with Rooney’s difficult tenure regarded as one of the key reasons behind the drop. However, he was seeking a revamp of his squad in the January transfer window but was sacked at the start of the new year.
In his statement released shortly after his dismissal, he accused Birmingham’s American owners Knighthead of panicking for denying him the opportunity to strengthen his struggling squad.
Argyle, who finished 21st in the Championship, have already interviewed former Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom this week but it is understood Rooney is now the No1 choice of the board.
Rooney has been in charge at three other clubs since bringing down the curtain on his playing career in January 2021. He earned praise for guiding Derby County through a dire period of financial chaos, before moving to the United States to manage DC United.