Birmingham City had Wayne Rooney in charge for only a matter of matches and months before he was sacked
Wayne Rooney(Image: Kieran McManus/REX/Shutterstock)
Suggestions that Championship outfit Blackburn Rovers were considering appointing former Birmingham City manager Wayne Rooney were never in the thinking of the club’s hierarchy, head of football operations and former striker Rudy Gestede has indicated.
Rooney left Blues in January 2024 with the club having slid from play-off contention and into a relegation battle on his watch – a battle they eventually lost the following spring and have needed Chris Davies and a revamped squad to haul them out of League One at the first attempt.
Manchester United great Rooney’s next job also came in the Championship, despite his poor Blues record, and that was at Plymouth Argyle – but Rooney left the club in a similar position at the turn of the year and the Pilgrims are also now staring relegation in the face with only a game left to play and an improbable goal difference to overturn.
Still, links emerged recently concerning Rooney and Blackburn, who lost John Eustace in February to Championship rivals Derby County. They in turn turned to former West Brom and Barnsley manager Valerien Ismael, who didn’t begin his tenure well at all; he oversaw five defeats in his first six games and took just two points from a possible 21.
There has been a significant upturn since, though; Blackburn have won four games on the spin to restore their play-off hopes and, with a single game remaining of their season, they still have a chance of posting a top six finish. Gestede said Rooney was never on the agenda and that the club were always sticking by Ismael.
“We cannot control the media,” he told Footy Accumulators’ No Tippy Tappy podcast. “That’s their job to try to give information around. I don’t know if it’s from an agent or Wayne Rooney himself, I don’t think so, but you never know. It’s never been the plan. We are happy with Valerien, we want to give him time. We chose him because of the project, and it doesn’t make any sense to make a decision now.
“Valerien has just started, and we have been losing games, and the media said we were losing games because he had his hands in his pocket and he wasn’t showing emotions, and that’s why the players weren’t performing at their best. Now we are winning games, he still has his hands in his pockets, so what can they say about this now?”
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