Is Wayne Rooney’s managerial career over before it has started?

In addition to making a clear declaration about his intentions for his future as a manager, Wayne Rooney’s sacking by Birmingham City included a strong expression of anguish at what he believes to have been a premature and unfair firing.

Despite a disastrous 83-day tenure at St Andrew’s, Rooney still feels that managing is his calling after stints as manager of Major League Soccer’s Derby County and DC United (MLS).

Rooney’s time at Derby and DC United is difficult to evaluate due to financial constraints; however, his career at Birmingham, where he was in charge of just 15 games and saw only two victories, is unrelated to these financial issues. 

After he was brought in by the club’s new owners to take over for ex-manager John Eustace, the Blues dropped from sixth to twentieth place during Rooney’s tenure, and after the team lost 3-0 to Leeds United, Rooney was under fire from his team’s supporters. It was a miserable and depressing time from the beginning. Rooney is now focused on “getting ready” for his “next chance,” but it’s unclear who will provide it to him at this time.

Does Rooney’s managerial future look uncertain?

Even at his current age of 38, Rooney has been involved in elite football since making his debut at Everton when he was 16 years old. His entire existence has been devoted to it, driven by the intense rivalry he experienced as a young man growing up in Liverpool’s Croxteth neighbourhood.

Rooney will undoubtedly be eager to get back into the game, but who will give him the chance following his miserable performance as the big boss at Birmingham City? Is this the kind of chance any club would be willing to take?

There’s no denying Rooney’s ambition, however. He declined an interview in January 2022 for the open management position at Everton, indicating that it was a position for later down the line and that he did not think the time back then was appropriate. 

In my opinion, I’m not too certain that Rooney will be offered an amazing Premier League managerial position any time soon, and his Birmingham City track record is likely to turn away any aspiring Championship clubs. After taking some time to contemplate, would Rooney want to go farther down on the ladder to rekindle his career? Although Rooney has experience overseas in Washington, it’s difficult to picture him ending up in any part of Europe. 

Should this not prove to be the final straw for Rooney, it’s also possible for him to make the trip to the Saudi Pro League, where his fellow ex-teammate and another member of England’s ‘Golden Generation,’ Steven Gerrard, is now having a difficult time with Al-Ettifaq.

After his dismissal, all of these questions remain, but one thing is certain: Rooney’s reputation in Birmingham has taken a significant hit. When looking for possibilities for the future, it appears like there aren’t many. Although Rooney’s desire to return to the EPL is evident, he might need to let go of any aspirations and essentially begin the journey he talks about all over again given Birmingham’s history and notoriety.

Although Rooney’s stint at Birmingham City was disastrous from a professional football perspective, it was his best opportunity to date to demonstrate his managerial skills. Rooney is the most recent of the so-called generation of English players from the early 2000s to find that managing is a difficult task that does not come naturally to them, including Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole and John Terry.