Wayne Rooney reveals "strange" thing he discovered when he took Derby County job | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney has opened up on his time as Derby County manager, revealing that he found the transition from playing to management difficult.

It is fair to say that Wayne Rooney has had something of a turbulent managerial career, but he will be fondly remembered by supporters of Derby County.

After an illustrious career that saw him represent Everton, Manchester United and DC United, it was announced in the summer of 2019 that Rooney would join Derby in January 2020, and he was immediately handed the captain's armband at Pride Park.

Rooney helped the Rams to a 10th-placed finish in the Championship in the 2019-20 season, but after a poor start to the following campaign, manager Phillip Cocu was sacked in November 2020, with the ex-England man initially taking joint charge as part of a four-man interim team.

Just under two weeks later, Rooney became Derby's sole caretaker manager before being handed the job on a permanent basis in January 2021, and he successfully kept the club in the second tier, albeit they only finished one point clear of the relegation zone.

After the Rams were deducted a total of 21 points in the 2021-22 season, Rooney was unable to prevent their relegation to League One, but his side would have finished 14 points clear of the bottom three without the sanctions.

Amid the ongoing off-field turmoil, Rooney resigned as Derby manager in June 2022, and he has failed to build on the promise he showed in the East Midlands in his subsequent managerial roles at DC United, Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle.

Wayne Rooney opens up on the challenges of becoming Derby County manager

Having spent almost a year as a player at the club before replacing Cocu, Rooney admitted that he found the transition to life as Derby manager challenging, particularly given the sudden change in dynamic between him and his former teammates.

"I was playing at the time, so I was in the dressing room with my teammates," Rooney said on The Overlap Fan Debate.

"Literally the next day I go in, I'm the manager.

"So, I had to make a decision whether I wanted to carry on playing or retire.

"I felt I could have played on for a couple of years, if I'm being honest, because I hadn't really had any bad injuries throughout my career, and I was playing in midfield, which is a little bit easier than playing as a centre-forward.

"I could have carried on, but then I wanted to start that journey of going into coaching.

"For me, it was a bit strange going into the first-team meeting and the players are like, 'what do we call you?'

"But the advantage I had with that was that I knew which players in the dressing room were not good for the dressing room, so I could quite quickly try to get those players out and bring players in.

"That season we stayed up on the last game of the season, but then I was told we were going into administration and couldn't sign players.

"For that as my first job, it was very difficult, but the players were incredible really with how they got on with it."

Wayne Rooney may still feel Derby County regret after Pride Park exit

Despite working in incredibly challenging conditions, Rooney did an excellent job at Derby, and his side came relatively close to completing what would have been a remarkable escape from relegation in the 2021-22 season.

Much of the coaching may have been done by his assistant Liam Rosenior, but Rooney was the figurehead of the Rams' management team, and he conducted himself impressively amid the off-field challenges at Pride Park while the club was in administration.

Having weathered the storm, it was something of a surprise when Rooney resigned just hours after rumours emerged that current owner David Clowes was set to rescue the club, and given how his managerial career has unfolded since his exit, he may feel some regret that he did not stay on to lead Derby into a new era.