Wayne Rooney reveals how TV show ‘First Dates’ helped him recover from dreadful start as Plymouth boss

The Manchester United legend is back in the dugout after enduring an ill-fated 83-day stint in charge of Birmingham last season. He has returned to the Championship and is hoping to rebuild his reputation at Home Park.

A humbling 4-0 reversal at Sheffield Wednesday on the opening weekend of the 2024-25 campaign has left Rooney facing more uncomfortable questions, with his future in Devon already falling under the spotlight.

Rooney, though, has found a way of ignoring outside noise and avoiding any pressure that is being lumped onto his shoulders. He has told BBC Sport of unwinding on the back of a disappointing loss at Hillsborough: "There's always pressure, of course there is, that's part of the game. After the game on Sunday I turned my phone off and I watched an episode of First Dates. It's important you can switch off, you can get away from it and then I revisited it early Monday morning and watched the game back. You can have a bad game, that happens, it's important that they are able to switch off because sometimes then you can think too much about it and that does affect you mentally."

The ex-England captain added on seeing his every move dissected in minute detail: "I understand it. I get there's a lot more scrutiny on me, that's fine, I can deal with that. I know what we're doing and what we're trying to achieve at the club. It was a surprise on Sunday [against Wednesday] but I don't think it was a time to panic and we've had to get the team in, discuss it, put that game to bed on Sunday. There were some harsh words said to the players on that performance and I wanted and expected a reaction tonight and thankfully I got that."

Rooney picked up his first competitive win as Plymouth boss when seeing the Pilgrims beat Cheltenham 3-0 in the first round of the Carabao Cup. They will be back in league action on Saturday when playing host to Hull City.