English football legend Wayne Rooney has not risen to become a great coach after his playing career. Rooney has now been fired two times in a row.
Familiar news, characterized the English football media at the turn of the year. The reaction was directed Wayne Rooney’s to the firings, which happened already in the second new year in a row.
In January 2024, Rooney was fired from the position of Manager of Birmingham City, which plays in the English Championship. On the last day of that year, right on the eve of 2025, Rooney was sacked at the helm of Plymouth Argyle after guiding the club to last in the Championship.
In Birmingham, 15 matches were enough for dismissal, of which the blue shirts won only two. In Plymouth, Rooney coached 23 league matches, winning four games this season.
Rooney has been sacked three times in his coaching career that started in January 2020. Of his four employers, only Derby ended in a different way: he resigned himself when the club went into liquidation.
Despite his streak of failure, Rooney will continue to get work as a coach, according to the English media.
Held, but plans are missing
The 39-year-old Rooney, who excelled as an attacker in his playing career, failed in Plymouth, especially in organizing the defensive game. Plymouth has by far conceded the most goals this season in the Championship.
Rooney very much wanted his team to build the game along the ground from the bottom up. It didn’t work though, commented the BBC The sports reporter following Plymouth Alan Richardson.
– I think the other teams made them clueless by pressing and Rooney didn’t have a plan B. It didn’t help him that he didn’t have a good team anyway, Richardson describes, referring to the team’s injuries.
The Plymouth players characterized Rooney as being in the same story, and he did not “lose the dressing room” despite the difficulties. He also did not want compensation from the club for his dismissal.
Sports media according to The Athletic Rooney will get work again in the future. He is being taken to, for example, the English Premier League, the Saudi Arabian Premier League and back to the North American MLS.
– In football and other sports, despite all the data and know-how, all the pressure and big financial investments, club owners and chairmen still hire managers or coaches based on how good they were at kicking the ball themselves, journalist Tim Speirs characterizes in his analysis.