Section:GDN 1N PaGe:42 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 21:06 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 7 August 2019
(^42) Sport
Football
Rooney wants
a fi nal chapter
of glory before
the managerial
story unfolds
Hours after fl ying into the country
to announce a sensational return to
English football by signing for Derby ,
Wayne Rooney said his appetite for
success remains as intense as ever.
“I’m delighted to be back and to try to
help the team go forward and hope-
fully push for promotion,” said the
33-year-old. “It’s football, it’s been
my whole life, it’s what I love.”
England’s record goalscorer has
agreed an 18-month contract with the
Championship side, with the option of
another year. He will start in J anuary
after completing the MLS season with
DC United. His role at Pride Park will
involve coaching as well as playing
but he is adamant the emphasis will
be on the latter, being careful to spell
out that, although he has ambitions
to manage one day, here he will be a
pupil of the manager, Phillip Cocu, and
not a threat.
“I feel I have a lot of quality I
can bring to the squad so, fi rst and
foremost, I want to play and help
January on and off the pitch. [Promo-
tion] decisions will be made in March
and April so we must be in a good
position at that moment.”
Rooney added: “Derby is a club with
great ambitions. They’ve put a lot of
money into the squad over the years
and I felt my experience could help
them take that next step.”
Rooney will be paid around
£90,000 per week and will wear a
shirt bearing 32, the same number
that appears in the name of the online
betting casino that signed a record
sponsorship contract with Derby this
month. “The number is no big deal,”
said Rooney when asked about its
signifi cance.
Rooney is stepping up his pursuit
of his coaching qualifi cations and
revealed that an instructor from the
Football Association will fl y to the
United States next week to oversee his
progress. “I started doing my coaching
badges a few years ago, but through my
children I couldn’t always fi nd time to
fi t them in,” he said. “The FA are fl ying
out next Monday to continue them,
and when I’m back in England I’ll have
more time to fulfi l the requirements. ”
Rooney said he has been thinking
about moving into management for
at least fi ve years and started gaining
hands-on experience while at Old
Traff ord. “When Louis van Gaal was
manager , Ryan Giggs was analysing
the opponents and I used to go in
there a lot for a few hours after train-
ing. Then at Everton I’d speak to the
coaches,
“I’ve always been interested in
it. At DC I speak to the coaches a lot
about how we’re going to prepare the
game and set up. It’s something which,
when you’re interested and have an
open mind, you always speak to your
teammates or coaches about it.”
He said the manager with whom he
spent most of his career made the com-
ment that made the deepest impres-
sion on him. “There’s a lot of things
that stick with you from managers but
I remember Alex Ferguson saying: ‘The
hardest thing to do in life is to work
hard.’ That’s true, no matter what you
do. Whether it’s football or a job in an
offi ce, the most diffi cult thing is to stay
motivated and work hard. If you can
do that, it’s a great quality to have.”
He has no doubt he has that quality.
“ That comes from where you grow
up and how you’re brought up. It was
instilled in me as a child.”
As for what type of manager he
envisages himself becoming, he was
not about to make any grand claims.
“That’s in the future. We all want to be
like the great managers.”
His next main infl uence will be
Cocu, a distinguished former player
who has forged a fine career as a
manager, including three Dutch league
titles. He said he is familiar with the
process Rooney is set to go through.
“In my own [playing] career, when I
came back from Barcelona to PSV, my
coach at PSV, Guus Hiddink, gave me
more insight into what managing and
coaching is about,” Cocu said. “ It was
very helpful and even in my fi rst years
in the job [of manager] I was still in
contact with him.
“I am sure that not only myself
but also our staff can help [Rooney]
in this period, to show him how we
think about football, how we approach
the games, how we prepare training
sessions and plan development for
young players. A lot of aspects of the
coaching we can show him.”
Paul Doyle
Derby and Cocu now have
to manage Wayne’s world
in the most unforgiving league
Analysis
Paul MacInnes
R
emember the
name? Wayne
Rooney, the all-time
leading goalscorer
for England and
Manchester United,
is coming home from the US. It
was always going to happen – that
fair skin could n ot stay in the
Washington heat for ever – but
after 18 months Rooney will return
from DC United to England in the
new year and get stuck into the
next stage of his career, as a coach.
In fact he will do more than that.
He will still be a player.
In announcing the Januarymove Derby’s manager, Phillip
Cocu, spoke about the “positive
contribution” he felt Rooney could
make across the club. As for the
player -coach himself, he talked
about making a “big contribution”.
Note the small diff erence in
language there. It is a good
illustration of how, while there are a
few aspects to this move that make
obvious sense, there are others that
set off all the alarms one might have
rigged up in case of an outbreak of
Modern Football.
Taking the positives fi rst , Derby
have got themselves a world-class
striker. He is pretty much a straightOct 2002 Scores for Everton against
Arsenal in October 2002 at the age
of 16 years and 360 days, making
him the youngest Premier League
goalscorer at the time.
Feb 2003 Becomes the youngest
player to play for England at
17 years and 111 days in a friendly
defeat against Australia.
Aug 2004 Becomes the most
expensive British teenager by
joining Manchester United in deal
that eventually rises to £27m.
Sep 2005 Sent off in a Champions
League draw at Villarreal after
clapping in the referee’s face.
Jul 2006 Sent off in the World Cup
quarter-fi nal defeat by Portugal
for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho.
England lose on penalties.
May 2008 In United team for
the Champions League fi nal win
against Chelsea in Moscow.
Oct 2010 Signs fi ve-year extension
with United, two days after saying
he would not and wanted to leave.Feb 2011 Scores arguably his best
United goal, an overhead kick to give
them a 2-1 Manchester derby win.
Oct 2012 Sent off in a Euro 2012
qualifi er against Montenegro for
a foul on Miodrag Dzudovic and
banned for the fi rst three games of
the fi nals in Poland and Ukraine,
reduced to two on appeal.
Nov 2014 Wins 100th England cap
and scores penalty as England defeat
Slovenia in a Euro 2016 qualifi er.
Sep 2015 Breaks Sir Bobby Charlton’s
England scoring record with his 50th
goal in a Euro 2016 qualifying match
against Switzerland.
Sep 2016 Earns his 116th cap to
become England’s most-capped
outfi eld player.
Jan 2017 Surpasses Charlton as
United’s all-time record scorer with
goal against Stoke as a substitute.
Jul 2018 Signs for DC United, since
scoring 23 goals in 41 MLS games.
Aug 2019 Agrees to join Derby
County as player-coach in January.What a journey From that derby goal to Derby goals
the team,” said Rooney as he sat
beside Cocu.
Rooney said he would not have
joined Derby if the manager was
troubled by his arrival. “I spoke
to Phillip on the phone to see the
situation with him ,” he said. “After
that call I decided to come. There were
other options ; clubs made off ers and
inquiries. But once I made the decision
to come here, I was wasn’t going to go
back [on it].”
Cocu, who oversaw a victory at
Huddersfi eld on Monday in his fi rst
match in charge , professed to being
excited by the recruitment coup. “He’s
a star player with extreme quality,”
said the Dutchman. “A great player
and also experienced – this is some-
thing the whole team will benefi t from.
We set goals and are lucky to have him
help us achieve those goals. He can
be a great infl uence when he joins inEngland’s record goalscorer
will arrive in January with
a secondary role as coachPhillip Cocu
Derby manager‘He is a star player
with extreme
quality. He can be
a great influence’
Phillip Cocu
and Wayne
Rooney shake
on their new
partnership
which will put
the spotlight
on to the club
CARL RECINE/
ACTION IMAGES
VIA REUTERSA brave
new world
for Derby
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