Wayne Rooney has said he is keen to make a swift return to management following his sacking by Birmingham City in January and outlined his ambitions to manage either Manchester United or Evertonin the “next 10 years.”
The former United and England forward was fired just three months into his three-and-a-half year deal at Birmingham — a period in which the club lost nine times in fifteen games.
Despite that harrowing experience, Rooney remains undeterred from management.
“Managing Manchester United or Everton is the aim, these big jobs are where you want to get to,” Rooney said on Match of the Day, where he was working as an analyst for United’s FA Cup game against Nottingham Forest.
“But it’s a process I have got to go through the steps and get myself back on track. I want to get myself back into management to make sure in the next 10 years I’m hopefully in a position to go into one of the big jobs.”
Rooney’s first management job came at Derby County, where he was head coach between January 2021 and June 2022. He managed to keep the club up in the 2021-22 season and nearly managed to repeat the same feat the following year, despite the club being hit with a 21-point deduction. The 55 points Derby won that year would have been enough to secure safety in any other season.
The 38-year-old took over at D.C. United, a club he’d previously played for, in July 2022. The MLS side finished bottom of the Eastern Conference in his first year in charge before improving to 9th in the standing the following year.
His appointment at Birmingham came as a surprise, given the club lay in the Championship playoff positions at the time Rooney’s predecessor, John Eustace, was fired.
While the spell at Birmingham was a blow to Rooney’s reputation as a manager, the United legend said he’s taking it on the chin.
“I definitely want to get back into management. It was a setback what happened at Birmingham but I’m a fighter and I want to get back into it,” he said.
“You know as a manager [being sacked] is part of the job and you will have setbacks. It’s about how you bounce back.
“I’ve had some good time to reflect and will make sure I get it right next time.”
