How Wayne Rooney convinced Plymouth Argyle boss to hire him amid ‘Netflix show’ discussions

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Wayne Rooney left Plymouth Argyle on New Year’s Eve, having seen the Pilgrims drop to rock-bottom of the Championship after a run of just one win in 14 league games.

The former Birmingham City boss was named as Argyle boss in the summer, but he endured a very difficult start to life at Home Park, with the club struggling for results, particularly on the road, and they remain struggling after a poor first half of the Championship campaign.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
17	PortsmouthPortsmouth	38	11	9	18	46	61	-15	42
18	Oxford UnitedOxford United	38	10	12	16	39	55	-16	42
19	Hull CityHull City	38	10	11	17	39	47	-8	41
20	Stoke CityStoke City	38	9	12	17	37	51	-14	39
21	CardiffCardiff	38	9	12	17	42	62	-20	39
22	DerbyDerby	38	10	8	20	40	51	-11	38
23	LutonLuton	38	9	8	21	34	60	-26	35
24	PlymouthPlymouth	38	7	12	19	40	77	-37	33

While no one could fault the former Manchester United man for his dedication to the cause during his time at Home Park, he simply wasn’t able to get the results needed while in charge of the Greens, with his departure coming after he had picked up just one point from the last 21 available.

Miron Muslic is the man that has been tasked with trying to turn things around since, with the Austrian aiming to repeat his success with Cercle Brugge in Belgium after moving to the Football League. The writing may now be on the wall, though.

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Andrew Parkinson’s Wayne Rooney and Plymouth admission

Many Plymouth fans feel it is over, as do multiple fans in the relegation mix, despite impressive feats against Erling Haaland and Manchester City this season. An ability to gather any points on the road contributed toward the club’s downfall, with just two points from the 13 games away from Home Park under Rooney’s stewardship speaking for itself.

The decision certainly to initially appoint him certainly raised eyebrows among Pilgrims supporters, and talkSPORT revealed earlier in the season that owner Simon Hallett bizarrely claimed that he did not take into account Rooney’s poor managerial record when giving him the job, instead pointing to the positive underlying data from his spells at Derby County and DC United.

However, Plymouth’s form declined dramatically, and they parted company with Rooney by mutual consent on New Year’s Eve after a nine-game winless run that left the club sitting bottom of the table. And further information on the situation has been revealed since by a different club figure.

Andrew Parkinson, Plymouth Argyle CEO, has said: “To be honest, he was the best candidate we saw when it got down to the interviews and the biggest thing for him is that he really wanted it.

“There’s lots of other things that play into that. We went down from a long list of 30 and the process isn’t a straightforward one.

“People might be at existing clubs and might not want to come. They may have contracts where it will be expensive to get them out of it. Sometimes it is more difficult to get people to come down to Plymouth, let’s face it.”

He added: “When we got down to our final candidates, he absolutely wanted to prove himself, [and] wanted to show he could do the job.

“He’d had a couple of difficult experiences at other clubs. But, at the time, we felt he was the best candidate. We didn’t do it for profile reasons at all. It was massive in terms of that profile — some of it is a bit ridiculous; you could have things like lifestyle programmes.

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

Asked if he’d want a ‘Netflix show’, he said: “We did look at doing a show, but that was all around football. Not like a Wayne or Coleen show — it had to be about football.”

Muslic has done a solid job since coming in during January, but the damage might now be done in terms staying in the second tier for another year. He will hope to win against Watford this weekend, with Sky Sports’ David Prutton predicting the outcome of the ‘must-win’ clash for both.

He will be without defender Maksym Talovierov for the season ahead of the final run-in for the relegation threatened batch of teams at the bottom end of the division. They will be thankful that the Netflix plans were cancelled shortly after Rooney’s departure, given their struggles this term.

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Wayne Rooney’s career since leaving Plymouth Argyle

In total, the 39-year-old won just four of his 23 Championship matches in charge of the Pilgrims, with six draws and 13 defeats, as their plight continued to worsen as the season progressed.

It’s hard to argue that Plymouth made the wrong decision with Rooney, and the reality is that he has struggled in management since leaving Derby. But, that doesn’t mean his involvement in football coaching has necessarily to come to an end.

Since Argyle and Rooney went their separate ways, the former boss has been linked to new roles back on TV, where he has previously worked as a pundit. According to The Sun, Rooney is said to be in negotiations with the BBC to work as a pundit next season, with their coverage set to be revamped.

The Mirror have reported that Sky Sports, TNT Sports, and Match of the Day are all believed to be keen to sign him up, but Amazon Prime have won the battle for now as part of their Champions League coverage.

Given that Rooney has made it clear he is determined to succeed in management, it would be no surprise to see him return to the touchline at some point in the not-too-distant future, though. But he may now need to drop down to League One or Two for his next role as a manager.