Of all the directions we thought Wayne Rooney’s career may take after the end of his playing days, we perhaps didn’t expect this.
The eloquent and passionate spokesperson for a community worrying about its football club. A father figure for young footballers fearing for their livelihoods.
But this is Rooney in January 2022. As manager of Derby, Rooney carries responsibilities far heavier than anything he experienced during his years as centre forward and captain for Manchester United and England.
Wayne Rooney has been excelling for Derby despite the chaos surrounding the club
A takeover could be close and is needed if the Rams are to avoid liquidation soon
Derby, one of English football’s great institutions, face imminent liquidation if a buyer cannot be found soon.
Already in administration with debts of £60 million, the club are forecast to finally run out of money by the end of the month.
While they do continue to stumble forwards, Derby labour in the Championship under the weight of a 21-point deduction.
It is a chaotic, desperate scene and in the middle of it all stands Rooney, a rookie manager who is still only 36. Yesterday, speaking on a 35-minute Zoom call from Derby’s training ground at which he has been known to sleep at night, he was a voice of calm reason, a voice with a clear understanding of what is at stake.
‘Derby is more than a football club,’ Rooney said.
‘It gives everybody in this city hope. It gives kids the right to dream. It gives young players opportunities. It’s incredible that it’s been left in this situation.
Pride Park gives so much to the community and hearts would be broken if the club folds
‘It needs to remain in the football pyramid. If not there will be a lot of hearts broken.’
Footballers are not always empathetic by nature. The world they know and come from is competitive, cruel and often unfair. It pays to be selfish. Rooney thrived at the top end of it on the back of rare talent and an insular streak. Now, as he prepares to lead his team in an East Midlands derby game at Nottingham Forest today, he is relying on something softer and deeper.
He has already spoken to parents of his players about their mental health, asking them to look out for red flags. Local supporter groups, he revealed on Friday, have his phone number.
Rooney has paid for vital training ground equipment himself and has promised football staff made redundant over the last 12 months that, if brighter days do return, they will be the first ones back through the door.
In short, Rooney has vowed to carry the load of Derby’s troubles on his own shoulders and on the field at least there has been a revival.
Four wins from the last five Championship games have lifted them from the foot of the division for the first time. On the wall in the home dressing room at Pride Park are pinned two league tables. The real one but also one showing how the Championship would look if Derby could have those 21 points back.
The team are providing brightness in the gloom by giving everything on the pitch
So, there has been some brightness but trying to find a way through the gloom of impending extinction continues to represent the greatest challenge of Rooney’s career.
‘Yeh, I think it is,’ he said. ‘It’s been incredibly
