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Some of the hallmarks of Wayne Rooney’s superstar lifestyle were still evident three years ago when he embarked on a coaching journey, with Birmingham City appointing him as manager on Wednesday and declaring he was in tune with their ‘winning mentality’.
He was driven from his home in a rural Cheshire village to the training ground in Derby County when he was appointed player-coach there, which meant a chance to get some sleep after leaving at 7.30am.
That’s where the charisma and grace ended, however, as the testimonials from the players and backroom staff who worked with him at the time all point to the kind of manager Rooney will be at St Andrew’s. ‘A player manager. A motivator’, as a former colleague describes it.
Rooney appeared daily at Derby’s training field more than two months before he started working as Phillip Cocu’s assistant. “He wasn’t big,” says one of the players he worked with. ‘He got to know us. He had a conversation that had nothing to do with football, a connection was made and if he had something to say about a pass or positioning, it came across.’
The Derby experience is relevant to what he faces in Birmingham: a side blessed with young talent who, it is hoped, will reflect Rooney’s aura. At Derby it was 19-year-old Max Bird and Jason Knight, then 18 and an Irish under-21 midfielder.
Wayne Rooney was confirmed as Birmingham’s new manager on Wednesday morning
Rooney gained a reputation for being a good motivator in his first managerial job at Derby
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In Birmingham they are George Hughes and Jordan James, both considered even better prospects than Jobe Bellingham, who has left for Sunderland. Rooney has already referred to the quality of Birmingham’s academy.
The unanswered question about Rooney, a 37-year-old with stated ambitions to one day manage Manchester United or Everton, is whether he has the tactical and strategic intelligence to match those motivational skills.
Rooney spoke on Wednesday about ‘a clear way I want the team to play’. But after three years in management – at Derby, where he succeeded Cocu in November 2020, and DC United, where he moved after wisely avoiding the Everton opportunity presented to him by Bill Kenwright – he has yet to prove that.
His assistant at Derby, Liam Rosenior, did much of the day-to-day coaching, while Rooney provided the motivation – something needed at a financially stricken club, doomed to a relegation that came last year after the club lost much of the season in England. administration. In a way he’s old fashioned, more the motivator than anything.
Rosenior’s reputation was so enhanced by his work with Rooney that he was appointed manager at Hull City, and while the man himself hoped to improve his own managerial background in the MLS, it didn’t really work out that way.
Rooney started with a possession-based approach in Washington, but quickly realized he didn’t have the talent to maintain that style, so he returned to a more rudimentary five-at-the-back system with tall full-backs providing a big striker. .
Some in the US believe Rooney showed signs of improving some players, but there were mixed results among those he brought in with a decent budget at his disposal. It didn’t work with Ravel Morrison. Christian Benteke and Mateusz Klich didn’t set the world on fire. Rooney’s team finished bottom of the Eastern Conference last year.
Rooney kept spirits high at Derby despite taking over at a challenging time for the club
But doubts remain about his tactical knowledge after his DC United team finished bottom of the Eastern Conference last year
Sportsmail understands Birmingham will be looking for a possession-based game at all costs. Their American owners want expansive football – ‘a young, attack-oriented team’, as Blues chief executive Garry Cook put it yesterday. There will not be that fallback option this time.
Rooney, who will train on Thursday, also has to contend with the fact that not everyone within the club was happy that his predecessor John Eustace was shown the door after two victories in four days, which left the club in sixth place. The championship.
But Birmingham had been planning to recruit Rooney for a month, with the strong relationship between his agent, Paul Stretford, and Cook crucial to his return to the Midlands.
Cook is well versed in the experience of hiring a manager at a time when some believe his predecessor should still be in place. Much of Roberto Mancini’s introductory press conference at Manchester City when Cook hired him in 2009 was taken up with questions about the shabby treatment of Mark Hughes, who learned of his dismissal through leaks in the Italian media.
The succession has been much smoother this time around and Rooney can reasonably claim that he has kept the fires burning at Pride Park without a budget and that he can do even better with money he can spend in Birmingham.
Cook spoke on Wednesday about how the team is “now supported through data-driven decision making, with a player identification system that allows them to unearth hidden gems that strengthen the team.” The more prosaic reality involves Financial Fair Play restrictions. The club cannot throw the kitchen sink at this.
Judging from the Derby experience, the Birmingham dressing room will be a lively place in the coming months. Another Derby player from that era says Rooney made his feelings known after a 3-2 defeat at Luton, bottom of the Championship at the time. ‘He wasn’t happy. He was the first to speak and he didn’t hold back. Within a few minutes of scoring we had already conceded. He told us you have to keep the ball out for ten minutes after you score, that we had to do better.”
Some of the most established managers who have worked with Rooney always felt there was more to him than just motivational skills. David Moyes was struck by his intelligence and ability to communicate when the two started working together again at United in the summer of 2013. Roy Hodgson described the same qualities with England.
Birmingham’s owners want Rooney to play possession at all costs, and that added pressure makes it the 37-year-old’s most challenging managerial job yet.
Whether Rooney can follow their path remains to be seen, with the battle of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard showing that mere reputation as a player is not nearly enough in a sport of ruthless tactical development.
Rooney’s first match pits him against former United teammate Michael Carrick, who has experienced bumpy times at Middlesbrough.
“I have put myself in challenging environments to prepare for this opportunity,” Rooney said yesterday.
But this is by far the most challenging yet.