Wayne Rooney has left Plymouth Argyle after a nine-game winless streak left the club bottom of the Sky Bet Championship.
Signed in May on a three-year deal, Rooney departs Plymouth after just seven months in charge of the club from safety to four points.
His last game in charge came on Sunday as Argyle beat Oxford 2-0.
In a statement on Plymouth’s website, Rooney said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Plymouth Council, in particular Simon Hallett and Neil Dusnip, with whom I have an excellent relationship.
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Sunday’s defeat by Plymouth was Rooney’s last game in charge at Oxford
“Thanks also to all the staff who made me feel welcome and made the club a special place, the players and fans for their efforts and support during my time as manager and I wish them all the best for the future.
“Thank you to the Green Army for making the games at Home Park so special, they are memories we will share forever.
“I would also like to give a special mention to my coaching staff, Kevin Nansekivel, Simon Ireland, Darryl Flahavan and Mike Phelan for their knowledge, dedication, help and support.
“Plymouth Argyle will always hold a special place in my heart and I will continue to watch and be interested in their results.”
Wednesday, January 1 at 12:25 p.m
Start: 12:30 p.m
Following Rooney’s departure, first-team coach Nancekivell and club captain Joe Edwards will take charge of Plymouth’s New Year’s Day game against Bristol City.
“Plymouth Argyle can confirm that the club and manager Wayne Rooney have mutually agreed to part ways with immediate effect.”
“Assistant head coach Mike Phelan and first team coach Simon Ireland will leave the club with Rooney.
“First team coach Kevin Nancekivell and club captain Joe Edwards will lead the team for our Sky Bet Championship game against Bristol City on New Year’s Day. Daryl Flahavan will continue as goalkeeping coach.
“We would like to thank Wayne and his team for all their efforts and wish them well for the future.
“The club will not be making any further comments at this stage with updates on our new team leadership in due course.”
“It wasn’t good enough,” Rooney said after defeat by Oxford…
Sunday’s defeat at Oxford was Rooney’s 11th defeat in 13 games.
Speaking after the game in what turned out to be his last post-match interview as Argyle manager, Rooney said: “Do we have the players to turn it around?
“I’ll go back and try to prepare for Bristol, but at the end of the day I know football and how it works. I’ve been there myself. You want to see your team win team’s run. , when your team is losing games like we are, I understand that work is good.
“It wasn’t good enough. We didn’t concede enough goals, we didn’t do enough to stop them from scoring. We’ve been trying to score goals today.”
“Seemed like a perfect fit but Rooney and Plymouth never got through”
Sky Sports News correspondent Mark McAdam.
Rooney’s time at Plymouth lasted just 221 days.
He signed a three-year deal back in May and had a relationship with Neil Dewsnip, who has been the club’s sporting director for a number of years , which goes back 30 years, so they tapped Rooney in the summer as someone to take Plymouth forward.
Rooney hasn’t had much success as a manager. It was a bit hit and miss at Derby, but they had a real fighting spirit with what was happening off the pitch. We know it wasn’t great playing for Birmingham City and he had experience in the MLS.
Plymouth thought they were getting someone with a lot of experience and we know his playing credentials, but he was still very new in management and didn’t have the right fit for the club.
Plymouth is a community club. It’s a great club with great people. There’s a great spirit and the Home Park is fantastic to go to because the crowd really gets behind the team and they’ve had a lot of success under the last managers, going from League Two to the Championship. :
At the time, this seemed like the perfect location for the club.
A young, hungry, ambitious manager we know and understand and he wants to play the Plymouth way and the club believed that despite the low budget he could take them to places they had never been before in the Championship. It didn’t work out , and it just didn’t work out for Rooney and Plymouth.
There were high numbers and some positive results, but it just wasn’t good enough, leading to the board, along with Rooney, deciding it needed to end because it just wasn’t working.
What next for Rooney and Plymouth?
More from Sky Sports News reporter Mark McAdam.
Rooney will be desperate to prove he’s a good manager and a good manager, he won’t want to sit back, he’ll be looking for the next opportunity and he wants to get back to work as soon as it feels right.
I don’t think this is the end of Rooney as a head coach or manager. I still think he has that ambition to be successful.
For Plymouth, they will have to take stock, reflect and look, because they have had two managerial appointments that haven’t really worked. Rooney was the most recent, and before that there was Ian Foster.
The two appointments so far have been huge successes, and interestingly, Ryan Lowe and Steven Schumacher are both out of a job at the moment.
The main thing that the board will be thinking about with this next decision and this next appointment is to understand the city, the culture of the football club, the community spirit and the group of players that are already there.
So you’d think that someone like Lowe, who wants to get back to work and understands the club, would say that he would need until the end of the season to have a chance of taking Plymouth off the bottom of the table and into the top half of the Championship.
Upcoming Plymouth matches
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Bristol City (H) – Championship – Wednesday 1 January, kick-off 12.30pm – live Sky Sports+
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Stoke City (A) – Championship – Saturday 4 January, kick-off 12.30pm – live Sky Sports+
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Brentford (A) – FA Cup – Saturday 11 January, kick-off 3pm
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Oxford (H) – Championship – Tuesday, January 14, kick-off 7.45pm
- – live Sky Sports+QPR (H) – Championship – Saturday, January 18, kick-off 12.30
