Was Wayne Rooney appointed for ‘profile reasons’? Why Man Utd legend got Plymouth job explained – with ex-England captain lasting just 25 games in latest coaching flop

The Manchester United legend was a shock addition at Home Park during the summer of 2024. Rooney agreed to head to Devon, moving away from wife Coleen and their four children in the process, as he sought to rebuild his coaching reputation.

After delivering mixed results at Derby and D.C. United, Rooney lasted only 83 days in charge of Birmingham – after seeing NFL icon Tom Brady and the Blues’ board take a calculated gamble on his services. Those struggles did not put Plymouth off.

Another ill-fated tenure was brought to a close before the turn of the calendar year, but Parkinson maintains that Rooney was never part of a PR campaign. He has told the Business of Sport: “To be honest, he was the best candidate that we saw when we got down to the interviews. The biggest thing for him is he really wanted it.

“Now, there are obviously lots of other things that play into that. We went down from a long list of, say, 30. The process isn't a straightforward one necessarily. People might already be at existing clubs. They may not want to come. They may have contracts where it would be expensive to get them out of it. It's sometimes more difficult to get people to come down to Plymouth, let's face it.

“So when we got down to our final candidates, he absolutely wanted to prove himself, wanted to show that he could do the job. Obviously he'd had a couple of difficult experiences at other cubs, but we felt at the time that he was the best candidate. We didn't do it for profile reasons at all.”

Rooney severed ties with the Pilgrims after seeing them sink to the foot of the Championship table. The ex-England captain has returned to punditry duty amid another enforced break from the dugout, with no decision made as yet regarding a long-term future in the managerial game.