Rooney's fledgling managerial career hasn't enjoyed great success. At the age of 40, he's already been hired by and left four different clubs in varying circumstances, with things seeming to get progressively.
After he resigned as Derby County boss in 2022, having led the club in an extraordinarily difficult period, Rooney departed D.C. United in 2023 after failing to make the MLS play-offs, before spells back in England with Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle both ended in quick dismissals – it was just 40 games in charge combined at the latter two clubs.
Set for life financially from his glittering playing career and picking up regular media work, Rooney hasn't taken on another job in football since being sacked by Plymouth on New Year's Eve in 2024. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't want to be a manager again.
"I would like to go back in [to management]," he said last January during an appearance on Gary Neville's Stick to Football podcast. "But it would have to be the right club.
"I'd have no problem dropping into an Under-21 team or going in as a coach... I'm still young enough to learn and develop. Just having a good group of players who were at a [good] level."
If anything, going back into the sport as an assistant, rather than bearing the full brunt of the spotlight as a manager, might be a slightly gentler way of developing his post-playing career.