Sunderland’s Championship opponents may employ Wayne Rooney, who recently left Birmingham City, as their manager. Rooney has emerged as the leading candidate to take over at Plymouth Argyle, who are looking for a permanent replacement for Ian Foster. The former England youth manager replaced Steven Schumacher after his move to Stoke City, however Director of Football Neil Dewsnip and first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell led the squad in the closing weeks of the season as they narrowly avoided relegation.
Newsnip is now stepping up his search for a new head coach, and according to various reports, he is interested in hiring Rooney, whom he knows well from his time as Everton’s Academy manager. Further discussions are planned in the coming days. Paul Heckingbottom, who was linked with the Sunderland position earlier this season, has also been in conversations about it and could still be in the running. Heckingbottom is also thought to be of interest to Birmingham, who are currently in the process of choosing a successor to Tony Mowbray, who resigned for medical reasons earlier this week. Alex Neil is also understood to have undertaken preliminary discussions, which could progress in the coming days and weeks.
Rooney impressed in difficult circumstances during his first management post at Derby County, but his tenure at St Andrews proved problematic, and he was fired less than three months into his three-and-a-half year contract, and Birmingham were subsequently relegated to League One.
