Wayne Rooney brought ‘excitement’ to Man Utd says pundit
This Friday, Wayne Rooney’s documentary will be released on Amazon Prime. The current Derby boss will tell his story after a glittering career that saw him shine at the likes of Everton, Manchester United and DC United. He’s done well in management so far, too, helping the Rams keep their hopes of staying in the Championship alive despite the issues surrounding the club at present.
He burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old in 2002, scoring a memorable stunner against Arsenal during his time at Everton.
At the European Championships in 2004, young Rooney was the star of the show. Shortly afterwards, he joined Manchester United where he’d go on to become both the club’s record scorer and captain.
And he’s fared well in management so far, helping Derby as the club battle to survive.
United, at the end of the campaign, are set to hire their next permanent manager with Mauricio Pochettino, Erik ten Hag and Luis Enrique among the frontrunners to take over.
Yet some fans have called for the club to go for another club legend in Rooney to become Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s full-time replacement.
Wayne Rooney could one day return to Manchester United as manager (Image: GETTY)
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"I speak to people at Manchester United on a regular basis so I’m sure if they were to come calling it would have already happened.
“I’m committed to Derby County and until someone says ‘you’re not welcome to be the manager here’ I’m here."
Rooney also admitted he was disappointed to see Solskjaer sacked, with the 48-year-old losing his job just hours after a heavy 4-1 defeat to Watford.
“I was so disappointed watching that game yesterday because, as a manager, you can set a team up and work on shape and how you want the team to play, but there’s no excuse for some of those performances from some players,” he said.
“To see players waving their arms around and giving the ball away but blaming other people was not acceptable.
Wayne Rooney won many trophies during his Man Utd career (Image: GETTY)
“I would be very angry if I saw that from my players.
“Those players are at one of, if not the biggest, club in the world and should feel privileged to be there.”
Rooney has also spoken to The Mirror ahead of the release of his documentary.
And the former England striker and captain has expressed a belief the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez in 2009 started to trigger the club’s decline.
“You could see after 2011, Ronaldo left in 2009, Tevez left and after that you could see it was going to go backwards before it can move forwards," Rooney said.
Wayne Rooney won the Europa League before quitting Man Utd in 2017 (Image: GETTY)
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“That's what I could see and that's why I was asking the questions.
“Unfortunately, they probably still haven't recovered from that still to this day.
“It wasn’t a great team in 2013. For us to win that league title was a miracle, really, I think.”
Rooney won the Europa League final with United in his last match for the club back in 2017.
He’d later have spells at Everton, DC United and Derby before retiring in January 2021 to become Derby boss on a two-and-a-half-year contract.