Booted bottle at fan & ‘tried an Arsene Wenger’ – Man Utd legend Wayne Rooney explains red card drama as Plymouth boss

The former England captain, who was sent off eight times in his playing days, collected his first dismissal as a manager when being ushered from the dugout towards the end of a dramatic Championship clash with Blackburn. Rooney reacted angrily to seeing Rovers equalise in the 86th minute.

Plymouth would go on to have the final word, as Morgan Whittaker snatched a 97th-minute winner, but their manager was stuck in the tunnel by then. He had tried to make his way into the stands – as ex-Arsenal boss Wenger once famously did at Old Trafford – but the Manchester United legend was left celebrating with club officials.

Explaining why he was ordered from the touchline and what happened next, Rooney has told The Overlap podcast from Sky Bet: “It was a clear foul and they [the officials] have all missed it, and they [Blackburn] have scored from it. So I have gone to the fourth official.”

He added when asked if he had sworn at the fourth official: “Yeah, and I booted a water bottle, but accidentally it hit one of our fans. So I was in the tunnel, I tried a Wenger and I tried to just go in the stand, so I was in the tunnel when we scored, yeah.”

Rooney endured a tough start to his reign at Plymouth – which has seen him separated from wife Coleen and their four sons as he takes up residence in Devon – but results have started to turn and the 38-year-old was nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month award for September.