Plymouth Argyle have announced that Wayne Rooney has left his role of Men’s First Team Head Coach by mutual consent after seven months. His last game in charge was the 2-0 defeat to Oxford United on Sunday.
A statement on the club website read: “Plymouth Argyle can confirm that the club and Head Coach Wayne Rooney have mutually agreed to part ways with immediate effect. Departing the club with Rooney will be Assistant Head Coach Mike Phelan and first team coach Simon Ireland.”
The club also confirmed that First Team Coach Kevin Nancekivell and club captain Joe Edwards would take charge of the side for tomorrow’s Championship game against Bristol City, while Daryl Flahavan will remain at the club as goalkeeping coach.
Where did it go wrong for Rooney?
Rooney was in charge of the Pilgrims for 25 matches in all competitions, winning five of them- with all five wins coming at Home Park. August saw them pick up just two points from four Championship games but did beat League Two side Cheltenham Town in the Carabao Cup First Round.
Their first league win of the season came on 14 September, surprisingly against high flying Sunderland. This was the first of three straight home league wins, although this was contrasted by a run of four straight away defeats.
What proved to be Plymouth’s last win over Rooney came against Portsmouth in November. They have picked up just three points in their last ten league games and just two points on the road in the entire campaign, leaving them bottom of the table with 18 points at the midway point of the season.
The club’s 22 goals scored is the joint lowest in the division along with Hull City, while their 51 goals conceded is comfortably the most in the league- ten more than the next highest, Luton Town. They have also not won back-to-back games all season.
What next for Plymouth Argyle?
With the transfer window opening tomorrow, you would expect that Plymouth will want to find a permanent replacement fairly quickly so the new man can bring in his own players to try and give the club a chance to avoid relegation.
After hosting Bristol City tomorrow they travel to Stoke, who themselves parted company with Narcis Pelach just yesterday. Following a trip to Premier League side Brentford in the FA Cup they then have three straight home games against Oxford, Queens Park Rangers and Burnley.
With 23 games gone and 23 remaining and the gap to survival currently at four points, it is not impossible that Plymouth could claw themselves out of trouble and avoid relegation, but it is clear that reinforcements will be needed in the January transfer window.
Where does Rooney go from here?
This is perhaps an even bigger question. Rooney’s stock was already pretty low when he took the Plymouth job in the summer after his disastrous two month reign at Birmingham City last season.
That saw him sacked on 2 January after taking Blues from a play-off place to a relegation battle which they eventually lost. Now, having started the year by losing that job, Rooney is finishing it by leaving another Championship club after only a few months.
After leaving DC United in October 2023, also by mutual consent, it means that the former England and Manchester United captain has now left three managerial jobs in the space of 14 months.
He has previously spoken of his desire to eventually manage one of his other former clubs, Everton and United, but given his experiences at DC United, Birmingham and now Plymouth, he may have to go even further down the pyramid if he is to find himself back in the dugout- if at all.