Wayne Rooney being eyed for new manager role months after Plymouth sacking

Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has been linked with a shock move to become manager of non-league side Macclesfield Town. 

According to a report from well-regarded journalist Alan Nixon, Rooney is being targeting by non-league side Macclesfield F.C, where he would replace former Blackburn Rovers player Robbie Savage.

Savage was appointed last summer and went on to win 40 of his 51 games in charge, amassing more than 100-points along the way to promotion from The Northern Premier League to the National League North. 

Savage has been heavily linked with a move to National League team Forest Green Rovers ever since.

A role with the sixth-tier side side should offer Rooney the kind of low-pressure environment the five-time Premier League champion needs to re-build his career as a professional footballer manager. 

The fact that Macclesfield is just an hour’s drive from Manchester’s city centre, should make a move attractive to Rooney who wouldn’t need to relocate away from his family home in Cheshire. 

Rooney’s potential move to Macclesfield is complicated by the news reported by Manchester Evening News in February that the 2008 Champions League-winner has accepted a temporary coaching job alongside Michael Dawson in Dubai. 

The Dubai role would see him oversee a five-day course in October — right in the middle of the football season. 

If the connection to Macclesfield does prove realistic however, Rooney would be taking the role on 6-months after the conclusion of his last job at Plymouth. 

It is fair to say that Rooney’s last managerial role did not go as he would have hoped. The 39-year-old was sacked in December 2024 after overseeing a nine-game winless run that saw The Pligrims drop to the very bottom of the table, before they were eventually relegated to League 1 months after Rooney’s departure. 

That role followed another dismal spell in the Championship at Birmingham City where the ex-Everton man lost 9 of the 15 games he oversaw as head coach. 

Rooney’s post-playing career hasn’t all been defined by failure though. 

In 2021 the 120-time-capped England player was appointed head coach at Derby County where he navigated The Rams away from almost certain relegation, before the club were given a 21-point deduction for breaching EFL accounting rules and ultimately relegated. 

Rooney was praised for his ability to keep Derby players focused as they faced insurmountable odds off the pitch. 

The next season he went on to manage DC United in the MLS, before his two ill-fated roles managing Championship sides Birmingham and Plymouth.