Wayne Rooney suffers blow as Championship club rule out managerial move for Man Utd icon

Last week a report claimed Championship side Blackburn Rovers were looking to bring in Wayne Rooney as manager amid pressure on coach Valerian Ismael – just months after the Manchester United legend was sacked from his role as Plymouth Argyle boss

Wayne Rooney has been dealt a blow after speculation linking him to the dugout at Blackburn Rovers was dismissed by the club’s footballing chief. Rooney has been out of work since being axed by Plymouth Argyle in December but there have been claims he could make a return to management at Ewood Park.

Rovers boss Valerian Ismael only joined the club in February as John Eustace’s successor, signing a three-and-a-half-year deal, but there has already been question marks over his future.

Ismael previously endured a run of just one win one in eight matches since he first took over and a report from talkSport suggested club chiefs were already considering his position and were mulling over a move for Rooney instead.

He has since guided Blackburn to three wins on the bounce to give their play-off hopes a massive boost, with the team now just four points off the play-off spots.

And former Rovers striker Rudy Gestede – who is now Head of Football Operations at the club – brushed aside the rumours and said they were sticking by Ismael.

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Gestede – who played 73 times for Rovers between 2013 and 2015 – said the club had no control over speculation and questioned what would happen to the rumours now that the club have embarked on a winning streak.

“We cannot control the media,” he said while speaking to Sam Allardyce on the Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast. “That’s their job to try to give information around. I don’t know if it’s from an agent or Wayne Rooney himself, I don’t think so, but you never know.

“It’s never been the plan. We are happy with Valerian, we want to give him time. We chose him because of the project, and it doesn’t make any sense to make a decision now.

“Valerian has just started, and we have been losing games, and the media said we were losing games because he had his hands in his pocket and he wasn’t showing emotions, and that’s why the players weren’t performing at their best. Now we are winning games, he still has his hands in his pockets, so what can they say about this now?”

Allardyce, who managed Blackburn between 2008 and 2010, recalled constant news stories claiming he was going to lose his job during his management career and said it was difficult to stop the “vultures” from coming out.

He said: “That’s what it would have been about, that the new manager was struggling at the time, and then the vultures come out.

“In the old days, if you were struggling a bit, you would look up in the director’s box and see all the out-of-work managers there, showing their face and trying to say ‘I’m available’. It’s never changed. It never will change with the speculation. All you’ve got to do is win.”

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