‘I hired Wayne Rooney as manager – this is what stood out about him’

Wayne Rooney was hired by Plymouth Argyle in May 2024, and whilst things didn’t work out and the Man United icon only lasted until December, one particular reason saw the appointment made

Andrew Parkinson, CEO of Championship side Plymouth Argyle, has explained why he hired Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney as manager before his tumultuous exit.

Having been given his coaching bow at Derby County in 2020, the man who scored over 350 goals for the Red Devils enjoyed a spell as manager of D.C. United in the MLS after retiring before returning to English football with Birmingham City in October 2023. Working under the club’s new American owners, Rooney only lasted until January after mustering up just two wins in 15 matches. However, he wouldn’t be without a job long after leaving the eventually relegated Blues.

In May, the 39-year-old was given his next shot with Plymouth, though he wouldn’t fair any better in Devon than in the West Midlands. Rooney was shown the exit door in December, with Argyle sitting in last place and not gelling with his possession-based demands. While his spell there may be looked upon as lacklustre, the club’s CEO has revealed that he was by far the top candidate and arrived with an evident hunger – and that the hire was not made with the former England man’s profile in mind.

“To be honest, he was the best candidate that we saw when we got down to the interviews,” Plymouth CEO Parkinson told Business of Sport. “The biggest thing for him is he really wanted it.

“Now, there are obviously lots of other things that play into that. We went down from a long list of, say, 30. The process isn’t a straightforward one necessarily. People might already be at existing clubs. They may not want to come.

“They may have contracts where it would be expensive to get them out of it. It’s sometimes more difficult to get people to come down to Plymouth, let’s face it.

“So when we got down to our final candidates, he absolutely wanted to prove himself, wanted to show that he could do the job. Obviously he’d had a couple of difficult experiences at other cubs, but we felt at the time that he was the best candidate. We didn’t do it for profile reasons at all.”

Though Parkinson insists that Rooney’s desire to prove himself at Plymouth set him apart from other candidates, he did admit that the attention and upturn that came with hiring such a big name was clear to see.

“Yeah, it was massive in terms of that,” replied Parkinson when questioned about Rooney’s profile. “Some of it is a bit ridiculous, though, too, because you could have things like lifestyle programs.

“In fairness, he didn’t want to do any of that. He just wanted to concentrate on football, and actually so did we really. Otherwise, it becomes a bit of a circus.

“We did look at doing a show,” added Parkinson when queried if a Netflix show was something considered. “But, that was all around football and wasn’t around, say, like a Wayne and Coleen show or something like that. It had to be about football.”

Asked if it was Plymouth who approached United icon Rooney initially or the other way around, Parkinson concluded: “It was a bit of both, to be honest.

“When you have got a managerial vacancy, you look at people who might fit your criteria from a football perspective, that would be on data, on previous records and all sorts of things. You then get a lot of people approach you, too.”