Coleen Rooney will be ‘devastated’ at Wayne’s latest sacking because ‘she really worries about him’, friends tell KATIE HIND – and here’s why she’s ‘furious’ after this week’s shocking leaked video

It’s a photo that certainly sums up the past few days in the Rooney household.

Self-proclaimed ‘football mum’ Coleen, who decided not to take her sons to husband Wayne’s Plymouth Argyle on Sunday, instead sat down with three of her four boys at their beloved Everton’s ground, Goodison Park, to watch the team to cheer against Nottingham Forest. Sadly, Everton lost, leaving Coleen and the children – Kai, 15, Kit, eight, and Cass, six – stone-faced and gloomy.

The somber mood at Rooney’s £20million Cheshire mansion was sealed with Plymouth Argyle – 2-0 against Oxford United – in what we now know was Wayne Rooney’s last game as manager of the Devon side.

In fact, Wayne was sacked from his £500,000-a-year job at Plymouth shortly after 9.30am yesterday. Not yet 40, he has now failed in four managerial positions, including spells at DC United in the US, Derby County and Birmingham City.

Friends of Wayne say he is ‘dismayed’ at losing his job, although he recently felt it was inevitable.

And what of Coleen’s state of mind, so soon after her triumphant runner-up finish on this year’s I’m A Celebrity? Sources close to the family say they too will be devastated by the turn of events in Plymouth.

‘Coleen desperately wanted Wayne’s career as a manager to succeed. She knows how much he wanted it and she knows how much he loves football. On the outside, life for the Rooneys consists of fancy restaurants, vodka cocktails and expensive clothes, but actually football is so important to Wayne. It keeps him busy. She worries about him, and football keeps him out of trouble.”

Speaking of which, 39-year-old Wayne found himself in trouble again on Monday, when a video emerged of a woman apparently entering his ‘bachelor pad’ in the seaside resort of Salcombe, which – at least before the sacking – he shared with assistant Plymouth coach Pete Shuttleworth.

Footage posted and viewed more than two million times on X shows Wayne opening the front door of the apartment for the unknown woman. It then cuts to the former Manchester United star, wearing a baseball cap and tracksuit and standing in front of a large television.

The video was also accompanied by photos of him with two unidentified women drinking in a pub, although there is no suggestion that any of them are the woman pictured with Wayne in his flat.

Understandably, both Wayne and Coleen were ‘furious’ at the spread of the video – so much so that Wayne quickly took to social media to strongly deny the allegations made against him.

With the help of his PR team and management agency Triple S, Wayne wrote on Instagram: ‘The video shows a man and a woman looking around my apartment. The couple kindly gave me a ride home and were there at the same time as my son who was visiting.

‘The images are from last summer. Annoyingly, at least one online newspaper has chosen to edit the footage to make it look like a woman entered the apartment alone. That’s just not true.’

It was a convincing rebuttal, although Wayne’s past is of course far from squeaky clean. Unfortunately for him, most of us remember visits to a ‘granny’ prostitute when he was 18, while Coleen was his girlfriend, followed by a threesome with escorts Helen Wood and Jenny Thompson in 2010 at Manchester’s Lowry hotel, then Coleen, now 38, was pregnant with their first son.

He was subsequently arrested in 2017 for drink-driving while behind the wheel of Cheshire estate agent Laura Simpson’s car, for which he was banned from driving for two years.

Each time he admitted his mistake and each time Coleen forgave him, and I can tell you that this time will be no different.

“Coleen knows Wayne is a target for women,” says a source close to the star. ‘Especially in a city like Plymouth. He’s super famous and likes to chat when he’s had a drink and maybe he’s done stupid things in the past.

“But lately there seems to have been times when people have gotten it wrong or even taken advantage of it [by others].’

Another source tells me that Wayne and Coleen are actually in a ‘very good place’ as they have matured considerably since meeting as teenagers in the Croxteth area of ​​Liverpool.

But will that be enough to save the fly-on-the-wall documentary planned after Coleen’s impressive I’m A Celebrity performance? One can only imagine her anger if all her hard work in the jungle were compromised by what seems like potential naivete on her husband’s part.

Prior to this week, the couple were at the center of a bidding war between Amazon and Disney+ for their ‘At Home With The Rooneys’-style documentary, which promises to provide an insight into Britain’s most high-profile football family after the… Beckhams.

With Wayne’s manager Paul Stretford in charge of negotiations, industry insiders have suggested the couple could be paid as much as £5 million for the show.

But instead of starring Wayne as one of the country’s most high-profile football bosses, the program is likely to show the former star licking his wounds at home as he comes to terms with being unemployed again. Even more damaging, will fans of the Rooneys – and of football – feel that Wayne’s reputation has been tarnished following the video’s release?

“Football is central to the Rooneys’ daily lives,” says an insider. ‘The boys love it, and Coleen always takes them to their games. Okay, she doesn’t have a choice, but she absolutely loves it.

‘Part of the charm of the show [would be] Wayne’s successes as a manager, but now it seems he will abandon her instead of becoming a football coach.

‘Coleen did so well in the jungle, talking about the trials and tribulations of being a WAG and how normal they all are, despite their wealth.

“You can’t help but feel that this unfortunate video could be a distraction. Both Wayne and Coleen are acutely aware of the attention his crimes attract from the public, and that they will remain in the public consciousness for a long time to come.”

On the plus side, when the cameras are rolling, at least Coleen knows her husband is somewhere in their sprawling mansion. During his short spell at Plymouth he seemed to enjoy his night out.

He is a regular at the Monday quiz night at the city’s cafe bar Seco Lounge and has also been spotted belting out hits at the Cider Press pub’s karaoke night, where a video of him went viral on social media. “Make some damn noise, baby!” he shouted to the gathered drinkers.

Jarrod Styles, assistant manager of the Cider Press bar, said: “He was definitely a better footballer than a singer.

‘He was an ideal customer, he was just chatting to people, getting up and singing Shape of You by Ed Sheeran. He worked the crowd and told everyone to join in.”

Nearby Rakuda Bar also shared photos of two of Wayne’s visits on Facebook, describing him as “Rakuda’s new regular.”

Meanwhile, Coleen and their sons remained in Cheshire, while Wayne made the ten-hour, 600-mile round trip once a week by car. Sources say that despite her grief over the loss of Wayne, Coleen will be ‘thrilled’ to have him under her feet again.

“She misses him,” a friend of the star tells me. “They’ve been through so much, but she loves him.”

And the next time the Rooney boys fancy a trip to see Everton play, their dad can come along with them.