Wayne Rooney reveals exactly what went wrong at Plymouth Argyle for him | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney believes the frequent long trips to away games were to blame for his side's poor form on the road during his time at Plymouth Argyle.

Plymouth Argyle are a club heading in the right direction once again under Tom Cleverley, but some supporters may still not have forgiven owner Simon Hallett for the appointment of Wayne Rooney.

Just weeks after Plymouth secured Championship survival under caretaker Neil Dewsnip, Rooney was appointed as the club's new permanent manager in May 2024, and it is fair to say the decision raised a few eyebrows.

Rooney had been out of work for almost five months since being sacked by Birmingham City after a disastrous spell at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, during which he won just two of his 15 games in charge, drawing four and losing nine.

Despite many fans expressing concern at the appointment, Hallett insisted that he was not worried by some of the "poor" results Rooney had overseen during his managerial career, and he claimed that underlying data from his spells at Derby County, DC United and Birmingham gave him confidence that he would succeed at Home Park.

However, Rooney won just five of his 25 games at the helm of the Pilgrims in all competitions, drawing six and losing 14, and left the club by mutual consent in December 2024 with his side sitting bottom of the Championship table, four points from safety.

Miron Muslic was named as Rooney's replacement, and he inspired a significant upturn in form in the second half of the season, but it was not enough to keep Argyle in the second tier, with the Devon outfit suffering relegation on the final day of the campaign.

Wayne Rooney reveals surprise reason for Plymouth Argyle struggles

While Rooney's time at Plymouth is widely regarded as a failure, there were some positive moments during his tenure, including home wins over Sunderland, Luton Town, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth.

However, Rooney did not pick up a single away victory as Pilgrims manager, and his side suffered some comprehensive defeats on the road, conceding four against Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City, five against Cardiff City and six against Norwich City.

Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate this week, Rooney opened up on his spell at Home Park, and he claimed that the frequent long away trips were partly to blame for his side's dismal form on their travels.

"We were actually doing okay at Plymouth," Rooney said.

"We were due to play Oxford in December and the game got called off, but if we had played that and won, we would have been like fourth from bottom, and then we knew what we wanted to do in January.

"It got cancelled, and then we had Bristol City on the Wednesday and I got sacked on the Tuesday.

"The difficulty we had was the away games.

"At home, we were okay.

"The away games, you know, we're travelling on the bus for seven to nine hours for away games.

"The day before a game and we're having to stop off at the service station for 45 minutes because the driver needed to have a rest.

"So this is all stuff as a manager where you're challenging the club like, 'right we need to be able to fly to some of these games'.

"There's a reason that Plymouth's away form for years hasn't been great.

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Given their remote location, Plymouth face incredibly long journeys to many of their away games, which will no doubt take a toll on players, particularly during busy periods of the season when they have less time to rest and recover.

The Pilgrims struggled on the road for much of their two-year spell in the Championship, so it would be unfair to lay too much of the blame for the poor away form at Rooney's door, but many Argyle supporters will feel the travel is a weak excuse to explain his underwhelming record at Home Park.

Plymouth had the second-best away record in League One this campaign behind champions Lincoln City, which suggests Cleverley may have found the right formula to fix what has been a long-standing problem, but Rooney's former Manchester United team-mate will now need to improve his side's home form if they are to win promotion next season.