WAYNE ROONEY - FROM RECORD GOALSCORER TO MANAGER

by Julian Tabone

News last January that Wayne Rooney was appointed manager at Championship side Derby County on a two-and-a-half year contract should have come as no surprise to us all.

He had already been appointed as interim coach in November following the dismissal of Philip Cocu and before that, he had also taken over the role of player-coach.

Wayne Rooney is England’s and Manchester United’s all-time top scorer.

A bit of a look back at where it all started from for Wayne Rooney shows you all you need to know about the man.

Now that he is officially a full‑time manager, however, he will soon realize the tough job that is.

To be a successful manager, you need character. Amongst various other attributes, you need to be a leader, you need to be ruthless and you need a good dose of man-management.

Those are not qualities that every great player has any right to possess.

I feel though that Manchester United players are always at an advantage. The education a player is given at Manchester United is exceptional. Just look at our current manager. – is always raving about the uniqueness of our club and is always reminiscing of the glory days and to the benchmark at Manchester United that is always a bit above everyone else’s. He gives you the impression he is always trying to replicate Sir Alex Ferguson. Even some of the soundbites he throws every now and then remind you of Sir Alex and I wouldn’t bet he does not give Sir Alex the occasional phone call for advice.

I am not saying Wayne Rooney should do the same but the experience he has had whilst playing at Manchester United will certainly be of great help albeit not a guarantee of success once in a dug-out. The pressure at Manchester United is incomparable. That can make or break you. And Wayne Rooney lived in that kind of atmosphere for about 13 years.

He has had a glittering playing career.

Made 559 appearances and scored a record 253 goals. Won 5 Premiership titles, 1 FA Cup, 3 League Cups, 4 Community Shields, 1 Champions League, I Europa League, 1 Club World Cup and countless of individual awards. In the eyes of most of us, he is a legend.

Yet, as it is only normal, he had his lows as well.

And, if he wants to last long in a managerial role, he would also do well to look back and reflect at some of the major events that characterised his own career at Man United and the ways the club managed those situations.

In October 2010, during a pre-Champions League press conference, SAF shocked everyone when he said that Rooney had asked to leave United. In typical Ferguson fashion, he said he was as bemused as anyone but that the door would always remain open for Wayne to change his mind. To date, I have never ever seen anything like it. At the time, Rooney had even tried to engineer the move by driving the fans against the manager by suggesting there was a rift and all that. Ferguson went on the offensive and clarified the whole situation there and then. The rest of course, is history.

At Derby, he probably won’t have to deal with players who get sent off for sarcastically clapping the referee in a Champions League match (as he did in 2005 against Villareal) or if he does, he won’t have the whole world watching. At Derby, he won’t be expected to win every single game. And he won’t be expected to win the league either.

But he will have his fair share of pressure as well. Derby County currently sit in 17th place in the Championship. The least he’ll be expected to do is to guide them safe from relegation. If he does that, he may start looking at further heights and at boosting his managerial CV and, who knows, he may start attracting Premier League clubs as well.

Ultimately, Wayne Rooney follows in the footsteps of so many other United greats who have also moved on to management following a successful playing career at Old Trafford.

Being a great player at a big club however, does not gurantee you will be a great manager though.

Indeed, the list of former Manchester United players who went into management is quite a long one, but only a handful can say they have had success. The likes of Gordon Strachan, Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes, Steve Coppell, Roy Keane, Bryan Robson and Lou Macari have all had good stints at various clubs but even so, none of them has ever managed a top-six side. Others such as Paul Ince, Brian Kidd and even the great Bobby Charlton, Gary Neville and to a certain extent Ryan Giggs have failed.

So in that respect, whilst we certainly wish him the best of luck, the odds are all stacked up against Rooney.

Perhaps however, the story of the greatest former-Manchester United-player-turnedmanager is still to be written, or maybe ....it is currently being written. And, if I have to be really honest, I do not want that to be Rooney’s!