Former professional footballer Adrian Clarke has been sharing his thoughts on the possibility of Wayne Rooney becoming Derby County’s permanent manager.
This comes after Clarke recently made an appearance on The Totally Football League Show where he discussed the biggest talking points surrounding the EFL.
On the topic of Derby and their recent 4-0 win over Birmingham City in the Championship, Clarke was asked whether or not he thinks Rooney should be given the role of manager at Derby on a permanent basis.
In response, Clarke had this to say on the matter. (13.46)
He said: “Yes, I think he should get the job. They haven’t appointed him on a permanent basis, but Rooney’s never been a gaffer and they’re not conceding goals.
“He’s made an instant impact, you have to say, three goals conceded since he took sole ownership of team selection and that’s one every four hours. One goal against every four hours is unbelievable, it’s tremendous.
“I think he’s doing all that he can, [the Birmingham win] was obviously a watershed moment because the other side of the game came together with the goals.”
Goals from Krystian Bielik, Graeme Shinnie, Colin Kazim-Richards and Jason Knight secured all three points for the Midlands club making it Derby’s biggest away league win since a 4-0 victory at St. Andrews for Steve McClaren’s team against Gary Rowett’s Blues on Boxing Day 2014.
Back in November, Derby sacked Phillip Cocu as their manager and have since had an interim coaching team of Rooney, Shay Given, Justin Walker and Liam Rosenior taking charge of their matches.
TIF Thoughts on Adrian Clarke’s comments on Rooney…
Since Cocu was sacked, Derby have only lost three out of the 10 league games that Rooney and his coaching staff have taken charge of, leading the club out of the relegation zone for the first time since October.
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This shows that there have been some big improvements at the club since Cocu left and Rooney’s coaching team took over, which makes it understandable why Clarke thinks the Englishman should get the managerial job on a permanent basis.