Does Wayne Rooney need stepping stone to ‘dream’ job? Former Man Utd team-mate discusses potential managerial return to Old Trafford for Red Devils’ all-time leading goalscorer

The ex-England international remains the all-time leading goalscorer at Old Trafford, with the target being found on 253 occasions through 559 appearances in a 13-year stint with Red Devils. Rooney hung up his boots in January 2021 and moved into coaching.

Rooney has worked at Derby, D.C. United, Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle, with a mixed bag being delivered on the results front. There is no questioning the wisdom that he has to pass on, or his desire to succeed, but is he a United boss of the future?

Rooney’s former team-mate Wes Brown, speaking in association with Instant Casino, told GOAL when that question was put to him: “When you become a manager, your dream is to manage at a big club. If those opportunities come up, I’m sure anyone would snap your hand off. He’s still junior in the managerial game and he’s still learning his trade, but he’s one that has always wanted to be a manager. We’ll just have to see how it goes down at Plymouth.”

Rooney has already experienced highs and lows across his short spell at Plymouth and the general consensus is that he would need to fill a Premier League post of some description before potentially retracing steps to Manchester. Brown added when asked about stepping stones: “I don’t know the rules. If he does really well, at the end of the season has done really well, then you just never know. Normally you take different strides and step up slowly. It’s like any former player who has played for United that is managing, that would be the dream job.”

Passion has never been a quality that Rooney has lacked, with that already spilling out again as a coach – with a touchline ban currently being served for picking up a first red card in management. Brown said of seeing Rooney kick every ball: “He loves it. It’s been his life. When he’s managing, he likes to get involved. Sometimes it gets a bit heated. I think he’ll always be like that, with the passion he has for the game. He’ll be trying to improve all the time, he will learn all the time. You go into coaching to win and that’s what you try to achieve, and he’ll carry on doing that until he gets there.”

There have been claims that Rooney is being appointed on name alone, rather than his coaching CV, but his path has not been easy after suffering relegation at Derby, moving to America and spending just 83 days at Birmingham. Brown said of learning the hard way: “He loves it. He loves the coaching side of it. If something comes along then he’s more than happy to snap it up. But it’s not easy, especially with managers nowadays – you can easily come and go. If you are not doing too well at the beginning then you don’t really get that time. It’s a difficult one but he accepts everything and just tries to do the best with it.”

Rooney signed a three-year contract when linking up with Plymouth, giving him plenty of time in which to prove his worth, and has further underlined his commitment to the coaching game by moving to Devon by himself and spending long periods separated from wife Coleen and their four sons.