Wayne Rooney: Where did it go wrong at Plymouth Argyle for former Manchester United and England striker?

There have been some mitigating components to Rooney’s demise at Plymouth – some avoidable, some not so.

As head coach, somewhat than supervisor, he couldn’t be held solely liable for transfers, although his popularity within the recreation performed a component in some gamers opting to hitch.

Nevertheless, it was clear the signing of skilled Iceland defender Victor Palsson – who performed underneath Rooney at DC United – was one he had pushed for.

The previous Liverpool academy participant managed simply eight appearances underneath Rooney, battling kind and harm, and with the January switch window now opening it didn’t encourage confidence in his eye for a participant.

“To be truthful to Wayne he is been dealt a difficult hand – we’ve got the smallest funds within the division, we’re a small fish in an extremely giant pond, we’re persistently punching above our weight and he needed to are available in and overachieve,” Bell mentioned.

“I do really feel for Wayne as a result of it’s a troublesome job – it’s difficult to try to hold Plymouth Argyle within the Championship. We did it by the pores and skin of our tooth final 12 months and sadly, as a lot as I might like a neater season, I feel we’ll most likely should do it the identical manner once more this 12 months.”

One factor Rooney might definitely not be blamed for was Argyle’s crippling harm record.

He has been with out the backbone of his crew, together with captain Joe Edwards – now caretaker supervisor – on-loan Toulouse livewire Ibrahim Cissoko and Morgan Whittaker, who scored 20 targets final season and was the topic of a multimillion-pound bid from Italian giants Lazio final January.

It meant 16-year-old academy product Tegan Finn needed to begin their 4-0 defeat at Coventry on Boxing Day.

“Sadly, regardless of having an harm record the size of anyone’s arm, it isn’t labored out for Wayne and the time needed to come.

“Lots of people in defence of Wayne have requested: ‘Who might have accomplished higher?'”

“The straightforward reality is we do not know, we’ll solely discover out now.”