‘Wayne Rooney not committed to management after Plymouth Argyle sack’
Wayne Rooney does not have the commitment needed to be a modern-day football manager following his sacking by Plymouth Argyle, Simon Jordan has claimed.
The former Man United ace returned to the dugout in the summer when he took charge of the Pilgrims, after previous challenging spells with Derby County, DC United and Birmingham.
However, he was sacked by the Championship club on New Year’s Eve, leaving them bottom of the Championship table and four points from safety.
Now Jordan has criticised the board at Home Park for not giving the 39-year-old the backing to remain focused on the job there, given he does not believe the ex-England international has the commitment to be a manager in this environment.
Speaking on talkSPORT about who is responsible for things going wrong for Rooney at Home Park, the former Crystal Palace chairman said: “I put the blame firmly in the boardroom. If I was going to make the appointment of Wayne Rooney, I would make sure that I had experienced, resourceful, underpinning staff behind him.”
After Martin Keown then noted the appointment of Mike Phelan as Rooney’s assistant, Jordan stated that addition had come “very late”, before adding: “But the point is I get to hear things about culture, and outlooks and dispositions and the way that people live their lives, and what they do when they’re sitting in Marbella and thing like that in nature.
“And none of these things strike a chord with me as someone that really is committed to the lifestyle of being a modern-day manager.”
Wayne Rooney does not need to return to management after his Plymouth exit
Football Insider Opinion
It is getting harder and harder to see where managerial opportunities are going to come from for Rooney now.
Following his departure from Plymouth it is now four out of four managerial appointments where things have not gone well for him.
That is surely only going to make clubs increasingly wary about such an appointment, given how things could clearly go wrong for them in terms of results.
While they have not always been his fault, off-field issues have also hung over Rooney at times while he was in charge of the Pilgrims.
Others may not want those sort of distractions either, especially given Jordan’s point about what it may mean for his commitment to management.
The stress of things continually falling flat as they did for him at Plymouth is not something you can imagine being fun for someone who is so used to winning football games either.
Considering how much he has earned in his career Rooney does not need managerial jobs either, so it would be a surprise to see him in the dugout again any time soon.
In other news, Rangers are lining up a January bid for a Plymouth Argyle player.
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