After returning to Everton in 2017 after 13 years at Manchester United, home grown hero Wayne Rooney soon found himself playing under Sam Allardyce
Sam Allardyce has shared his one big regret over managing Wayne Rooney at Everton. Bursting onto the scene as a 16-year-old wonderkid in 2002, Croxteth-born Rooney is arguably the most gifted home-grown player Everton have ever produced.
However, despite his “Once a Blue, always a Blue,” t-shirt and his spectacular last-minute winner against reigning champions Arsenal with what was his first Premier League goal, he departed Goodison Park in acrimonious circumstances in August 2004 on the back of his spectacular exploits for England at the European Championships.
Joining Manchester United for an initial £20million – a world record fee at the time for a teenager – he won every honour in club football with the Red Devils, becoming the all-time top scorer for both them and the England national team, before returning to Everton like the ‘Prodigal Son’ on a free transfer some 13 years later.
Ronald Koeman was in charge of the Blues at the time of Rooney’s re-signing but with the Dutchman sacked following a 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal on October 23 left his big-spending side in the drop zone, it would ultimately turn to Allardyce to take the reins.
The relegation rescue mission by ‘Fireman Sam’ did not turn out to be the emergency situation it might have been and a 2-0 win at Goodison Park over Huddersfield Town in the former England manager’s first game in charge saw Everton climb into the top half of the table.
They would ultimately finish the season in eighth position but an attritional style of play, that saw the side ranked bottom of the Premier League for shots, shots on target and chances created, saw him sacked on May 16, 2018, just three days after their final game of the campaign.
For his part, Rooney would race to 10 Premier League goals by December 18 – the only time he hit double figures for Everton – but mostly deployed in midfield by Allardyce in the second half of the season, he subsequently failed to add to that tally. His former manager’s big regret of their time together concerns another issue though.
Speaking exclusively to Footy Accumulators on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, in partnership with BOYLE Sports, the 70-year-old discussed what managing Rooney during the player’s final stint at Goodison Park was like.
Allardyce said: “Wayne is one of the best players this country has ever seen in goalscorers, but my problem with him was that the fact he was coming to an end, and he was back at the club he loved, which is Everton.
“Sometimes I was really worried about bringing him off when he was looking tired, but I thought he understood it quite well. For England, it was all about him not playing.
“With the press, I got a first-hand view of how much pressure he’d been under all his life, by being a world-class player.
“The hardest thing as a manager is telling somebody like him that you think they’re struggling to live up to that level of football, because you won’t accept it, and I didn’t. But you have to make that decision.”
Allardyce also explained the one thing he regretted about Rooney when he was in charge at Everton. He said: “Wayne Rooney at Everton was a leader, and I regret not making him captain straight away.
"I should have just said to the club: ‘This is Wayne, he loves the club, he’s loved it since he was a kid, so he’s going to be captain.’”
Rooney, who had worn the armband for the last game before Allardyce came in – the 4-0 thrashing of David Moyes’ West Ham United when he completed a hat-trick with a goal from inside his own half as his new manager watched on – remained as skipper for the next four matches but after missing the back-to-back goalless draws with Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion either side of Christmas, he relinquished the role to club captain Phil Jagielka.