"To be honest" - Plymouth Argyle figure makes new claim on Wayne Rooney decision | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney lasted just 25 games in charge of Plymouth Argyle

Plymouth Argyle CEO Andrew Parkinson has opened up on the decision to appoint Wayne Rooney as manager last summer.

The Pilgrims hired the former England international during the off-season, taking on his first coaching role after his disastrous spell in charge at Birmingham City.

Rooney lasted just 15 games at St. Andrew’s before being dismissed, but the Devon outfit opted to bring him in for the start of the new campaign.

But the 39-year-old oversaw just 25 games at Home Park, with Plymouth in danger of relegation from the Championship due to their poor results in that period.

Parkinson opens up on Rooney’s Plymouth appointment

Parkinson has claimed that Rooney stood out as the best appointment from 30 candidates, and that his profile as an ex-player had no bearing on their hiring process.

Speaking on Business of Sport, the chief executive admitted that the former Birmingham manager’s hunger for the role was key to his decision to appoint him.

"To be honest, he was the best candidate that we saw when we got down to the interviews," said Parkinson.

"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.

"Obviously he’d had a couple of difficult experiences at other clubs, but we felt at the time that he was the best candidate.

"We didn't do it for profile reasons at all."

Plymouth Argyle league position

Rooney was dismissed by Plymouth at the end of December, with Miron Muslic taking charge in his place.

The Pilgrims are currently 24th in the Championship table with only eight games remaining.

Next up for Muslic’s side is a trip to face Watford on Saturday, with the team six points adrift of safety.

Rooney appointment was a gamble that didn’t pay off for Plymouth

There was some sense in believing Rooney’s time at Birmingham was too chaotic to get a good judgement on his true ability as a manager.

The Pilgrims took that risk that a better environment could lead to better results, but that simply didn’t come to pass at all.

It was a gamble for the Championship side, and it didn’t pay off and the consequences of that are likely to lead to relegation.

Muslic has done a solid job since coming in, in January, but the damage might now be done in terms staying in the second tier for another year.