Here’s why I hope Wayne Rooney gets another managerial job after his Plymouth sacking – and the one factor which shows his talent for coaching, writes OLIVER HOLT

The rush begins to rush Wayne Rooney back to a television studio. After his short spell as manager of Plymouth Argyle came to a predictable end on Tuesday morning, he is being told he has lost his chance at management and will have to give it up.

Maybe he’ll listen. The latter stages of his time at Home Park took on a rather blue tint, complete with the usual off-stage noises about his social life and the challenges of being separated from his family, who live near Manchester.

I hope he doesn’t listen. I hope someone gives him another chance in management at whatever level, because someone with his experience, someone with his skill as a player, someone with his stature in the game and someone with his generosity and empathy can make our game richer to make.

Perhaps I say that because I spent some time with him when he was in charge at Derby County and saw him work wonders for the club to keep them in the Championship for a season when they were beset by crippling financial problems. It’s hard not to feel like a man like Rooney still has a lot to give.

If it happens, it will be lower in the leagues. Or maybe it will be somewhere abroad. That’s the reality of management when you’ve failed twice in your last two jobs. But he’s not even 40 yet. He’s still learning. Why wouldn’t he follow that course?

He has a talent for the job. His time at Pride Park proved that. That was about as far from a silver spoon assignment as it was possible to get, and Rooney thrived in that. It could blossom again elsewhere.

The work he did under difficult circumstances at Derby County proves he has what it takes to succeed

But let’s not sugarcoat things: his time at Birmingham was an unmitigated disaster and his spell at Plymouth wasn’t much better.

Perhaps staying with Sky Sports or the BBC would tickle his fancy when it comes to staying in the game. But maybe not. Football is all he has ever known and it feels like the height of pride when people tell him he no longer belongs in it.

If you know anything about Rooney, you know he needs the game. If you’ve read anything about him, you’ll know that he found it difficult to cope with dips in his career at Manchester United and locked himself in a room at home, drinking and not seeing the light.

He will suffer now too. Wealth doesn’t protect you from that kind of despair, as many still seem to think it should. The game is Rooney’s lifeblood and he has much more to give in return.

Look, it’s always a treat to visit Home Park. A beautiful stadium with a great atmosphere and one of the best fan bases in the sport, in a beautiful part of the country, and something that makes it feel like an independent football republic within our top four divisions.

But while they are a fine club that often punches above their weight, let’s not pretend that Rooney was handed the keys to the kingdom when he was appointed Argyle manager in the summer.

Argyle are a proud club but they escaped relegation from the Championship last season and this season it was always going to be a struggle to keep up, whether it was one of England’s greatest former players at the helm , or someone else.

Rooney was not a success at Plymouth and it was no surprise when Argyle announced they had parted ways with him on Tuesday morning, with the club bottom of the table and four points adrift of safety.

But while some chose to sum up his time in charge in language that suggested he brought the apocalypse to the West Country, it is not as if he ran Manchester United into the ground in the way Ruben Amorim does.

I admire him for taking on difficult tasks and not retreating to the easy option of the expert

He needs football – it is his lifeblood – and he still has so much to repay in return

Plymouth are bottom of the championship, but only survived on the last day of 2023/24

Rooney can still find success despite another managerial disaster, writes Oliver Holt

He didn’t have the experience or the managerial savvy to create the kind of spark that a run-of-the-mill underdog like Plymouth needs to thrive, the kind of spark that Neil Warnock ignited with the Green Army long ago, the kind of spark that fueled Ryan Lowe and Steven Schumacher have recently gone up in flames.

But it seems a peculiarly English phenomenon to greet with unadulterated joy the failure of some of our greatest players to succeed in management and to proclaim that, because Rooney failed at Plymouth, he must abandon all hope of ever becoming a boss again. become.

Rooney has done management the hard way. He has been feeding on leftovers since he retired as a player. And while it is convenient to forget it now, the reality is that he did a remarkable job in desperately difficult circumstances when he was in his first role as Derby County boss.

Derby were crippled by financial problems when Rooney was there but, helped by the talented coaching of Liam Rosenior, he kept them afloat in the Championship for longer than many others could have done.

His reign at Birmingham City was virtually an unmitigated disaster. Many managers have such a saying on their resume. His time there was born under a bad sign when the club sacked a popular manager, John Eustace, when the club was flying. Rooney was never really able to overcome that obstacle and the club’s fortunes soared.

There’s no point in sugar-coating that. There’s also no point in saying that because it didn’t work there or in Plymouth, it can never work for him anywhere again.

I admire Rooney for trying. I admire him for not taking the easy option and sitting in a warm studio. I admire him for putting himself out there, in jobs where he knows the odds are against him, in jobs where he knows his opponents will come for him, and trying to prove himself.

He doesn’t need the money, but he does need the game. I hope it doesn’t turn its back on him.