Wayne Rooney's tenure at Plymouth Argyle felt a little familiar to fans of D.C. United.
Rooney guided the Major League Soccer club for 18 months in 2022 and 2023 and his stay in the U.S. capital shared many of the same hallmarks of his time at Plymouth: the hopeful beginning with talk of a turnaround, the poor results on the field and questions about his commitment to the job.
And then the inevitable departure and the disappointment that followed it.
After unsuccessful and complicated head coaching stays at Derby County, United, Birmingham City and now Plymouth, pundits have begun speculating where Rooney could end up next. Harsher critics assume his coaching career may be over. A job in the upper reaches of English football seems unlikely given Rooney's current CV, leading some to suggest that a move back to the United States might be a viable option.
It's certainly possible, but it's an opinion that feels steeped in a lack of understanding of the American game, which is rapidly changing. Rooney is not the first and will not be the last big-name foreign coach to struggle in Major League Soccer, with its unique demands, but MLS history points to the reality that reputation and profile alone do little in North America's top men's league, even for some of the world's all-time great players. French legend Thierry Henry floundered at Montreal, while others -- Ruud Gullit, Rooney and Frank de Boer among them -- have struggled to thrive.
Rooney's profile as a legend of the game will always make him an attractive candidate in theory. However, a potential return to MLS might be a complicated one, on the field and off it.
Rooney arrived at D.C. United in July 2022 after playing and coaching at Derby. At the time, Derby were saddled with financial penalties and Rooney was instrumental in navigating that mess, performing admirably given the fraught circumstances. Rooney had openly stated his goal to coach in the Premier League one day -- maybe even at former club Manchester United -- and a stay in MLS seemed an ideal step on his journey.
D.C. were floundering at the time and the club hoped that Rooney, who played for the club during a memorable 18-month stretch in 2018 and 2019, would give them a much-needed shot in the arm. At the time, it seemed like a sound move, with Rooney's reputation as a coach being on the ascendancy.
When Rooney the coach arrived at D.C. United, a main point of concern was whether the England national team legend would be given a fair amount of say in terms of incoming and outgoing players. United were just starting to shed their image as one of MLS' thriftiest clubs and decisions about player personnel had long been made by the club's front office, not its coach.
Rooney was not blind to this. During his playing days, he'd complained publicly multiple times about D.C. United's lack of ambition in the transfer market and when he signed on to coach the club, he received assurances from ownership that he'd be given the keys. "We're in the process of trying to get that done right now," Rooney told The Athletic just days after his signing. "There are players coming in that will excite the fans and make them better."
That never happened. One of Rooney's first moves was to bring in Jamaica international Ravel Morrison, who'd featured for him at Pride Park. United would be Morrison's 13th club and they paid dearly to get him, signing him to a $922,844-a-year contract -- multiple times what he was making at Derby. Rooney -- a long-time supporter of Morrison, who started his career at Manchester United -- advised club ownership he felt Morrison could be a "top five" player in MLS, an optimistic evaluation given the league's ever-increasing quality.
Things could not have worked out worse for Morrison, who now features for a second-division club in the United Arab Emirates. He was unproductive in his first half-season and, as 2023 approached, decision-makers at United were questioning his commitment. He was cut entirely from the team before the season opener, with United buying his contract out later in the year. It was not the last bad decision Rooney would make in terms of personnel as he learned the ropes in MLS.
United have spent the past year or so undoing some of those decisions, but it would be myopic to say Rooney didn't have his share of hits as well. He was instrumental in the signing of former Crystal Palace and Liverpool striker Christian Benteke, who would go on to become the league's MVP in 2024.
And it was Rooney, more than anybody, who identified defender Matai Akinmboni, then 15, as a prospective talent, insisting that he be signed to a first-team contract. Earlier this year, Akinmboni was sold to Premier League side Bournemouth, lending some credence to Rooney's eye for quality and making United a tidy sum in the process.
As a coach, Rooney also showed an interest in studying MLS' complex and often arcane roster rules and regulations, something many foreign coaches have had little appetite for. It was an extension, said one former United staffer, of his "obsession with football."
"It never ended," they added. "You'd see him on his phone, or in his office, and he was either watching the game, speaking about the game or studying the game. I don't know that I've ever met someone who was so deeply addicted to the game itself."
Rooney undeniably made D.C. United more fun to watch. The club never had a particularly clear identity under him, but his focus on pliability -- tinkering with form and shape from opponent to opponent -- made them more watchable than they had been in years. He also regularly used his platform to push decision-makers at MLS, criticizing the officiating, the league's broadcast deal with Apple, and more.
The club were dreadful in 2022 and under Rooney's leadership, they did manage to improve in 2023. Midway through the year, Rooney approached United's management about a contract extension, as he was clearly eager to stay. United declined then, and eventually altogether.
Despite the bright spots, Rooney's tenure in MLS was ultimately viewed as a disappointment. In a league where most teams qualify for the postseason, Rooney couldn't guide D.C. into the playoffs, the lowest bar of success.
It feels undeniable that part of Rooney's logic in moving Stateside was to escape the glare of the press in Britain, where he has been in the spotlight since emerging as a generational playing talent as a teenager. He often spoke about the anonymity of his life in the States.
"I can go and sit in a coffee shop and get a coffee," Rooney told The Athletic in 2019. "It's small things, but it's a huge difference from what I've been used to; no doubt it's been nice to be able to do and relax with it."
Just as he was in Plymouth, Rooney was spotted at bars and clubs in D.C. and on the road as well from time to time. Rooney has subsequently spoken about how he used alcohol as a "release" during his early playing days, but his presence was rarely viewed as a problem during his time in MLS.
Even after his arrest at Dulles International Airport in 2018, when Rooney walked through a secure airport door and then paid a $25 fine after being arrested for "public intoxication", fans viewed the striker as "one of us", going so far as to emblazon that slogan -- and Rooney's mugshot -- on a banner at United's stadium. At the time, Rooney's spokesperson said the former striker had been "disoriented" because he "took a prescribed amount of sleeping tablets mixed with some alcohol consumption" on a flight.
Against this backdrop, hiring Rooney would be viewed as a risk to some, despite the elevated profile his name would inevitably bring to a club.
MLS is a unique league, proudly so, and smooth transitions on the coaching side are rare. Gullit, twice named as the world's best player in the 1980s, came in to lead the LA Galaxy during the early part of David Beckham's stay with the team and fared dismally.
Fellow Dutchman Frank de Boer, a former defensive star with Barcelona and the Netherlands national team, struggled with Atlanta United.
Among high-profile foreign players, only French legend Patrick Vieira has tasted any real success in MLS, a league that in many ways asks more of managers than others. And even Vieira didn't win anything here with New York City FC.
Rooney was an influential presence to D.C. United's players, particularly the youngest of them. Like Henry, though, it at times felt as if he struggled to understand the idea that many players in MLS did not and would never read the game the way he does, let alone perform at the level he did even late in his career. It's an issue that faces many stars-turned-coaches, one Henry certainly faced at Montreal.
To Rooney's credit, he's shown a willingness to refine his craft at clubs that lack a bit of glamour. D.C. certainly isn't one of MLS' elite sides and Birmingham, Derby and Plymouth Argyle hardly qualify as sexy bullet points on any resume.
It's enough to make one wonder if he'd consider taking a job as an assistant, for example; something many coaches do before stepping into a head coaching role, or exploring the possibility of coaching at a second-division side in the States, something that realistically feels a bit unfathomable.
But who knows?
"It has never been about the money with Wayne," said one former D.C. staffer. "It has always been about the football with him. He could make multiples of what he does as a coach as a pundit, full time, but I can't imagine him not wanting to get his hands dirty again."
Whatever the case, and despite the perception, Rooney may find a harder road ahead in America than he does abroad.