Wayne Rooney a good fit for Plymouth Argyle declares Simon Hallett

Argyle's owner and chairman has spoken to Plymouth Live about a range of topics covering the appointment of the Manchester United and England legend as the club's head coach

Simon Hallett believes Plymouth Argyle's Green Army are getting behind the high-profile appointment of Wayne Rooney as head coach after a largely negative initial reaction to it.

Argyle's majority owner and chairman has put that down to the fact that he and the Championship club have explained their reasoning to hire the 38-year-old, who is Manchester United's record goalscorer and was capped 120 times by England. Hallett thought Rooney was a good 'cultural fit' for the Pilgrims and described him as "an approachable, down-to-earth, humble young man."

A lot of the criticism about the appointment of Rooney came as a result of his unsuccessful 15-game, three-month stint at Birmingham City last season, but Argyle supporters now seem more open-minded to the idea of him taking charge at Home Park.

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Hallett told Plymouth Live: "I certainly get the sense people are getting behind it. I think the reason is we have explained what the thinking was.

"I think the immediate reaction was 'Here's a guy who failed in his last appointment, they are just reaching out and grabbing a celebrity', and that was anything but the truth.

"Wayne's celebrity status, if anything, was a negative. What was positive about him is his ability to relate to people - to players, to staff, to sponsors, and so on. I think the cultural fit with Wayne was the closest of all the candidates."

The final interviews of three candidates - a fourth dropped out the previous evening - were carried out by Hallett, chief executive officer Andrew Parkinson, director of football Neil Dewsnip and, by video link, United States-based Nick Giannotti, a club director and the sole managing member of Argyle Green. Head of finance David Ray and club secretary Zac Newton were also in attendance.

Rooney was appointed on a three-year deal but Hallett stated: "The details of a contract are much more important than the length of it. Essentially it comes down to compensation paid if they leave, or if we ask them to leave."

He added: "The average tenure of a manager in the Championship is, I believe, 10 months so the lengths of the contracts clearly are not something people should focus on given the average outcome."

As one of the most talented footballers of his generation, Rooney has earned fame and fortune but now he wants to make a success of his coaching career, and picked out Argyle as a club where he could achieve that.

Hallett said: "He's going to be paid the same as anybody else who would be coming to Argyle. So he's paid roughly the same as the previous two managers (Steven Schumacher and Ian Foster).

"Championship managers are extremely well paid, but it's clear the money is not his primary motive. Wayne had identified Argyle as somewhere that he thought would be a good step for him.

"I happened to agree, the recruitment group also agreed, and I think he was prepared to take less money than he could have got elsewhere, but it's still a very fair salary in my view."

Rooney has increasingly been appearing as a TV pundit at football matches, such as the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Manchester United at Wembley last month, on the day he was announced as Argyle's head coach.

He is set to feature in Channel 4's live coverage of England's final pre-Euro 2024 warm-up game against Iceland at Wembley on Friday, as well as a few games at the tournament itself for the BBC.

On the prospect of more TV appearances from Rooney as a studio guest in the future, Hallett said: "It's not something we have talked about at great length. Ryan Lowe used to do the occasional media appearance, and I don't have a problem with that.

"I would be surprised, to be honest, if Wayne wanted to do a lot. Again, I haven't discussed it in detail with him, but I get the impression he would much rather be at the football club than in a TV studio."

He added: "I saw him during the FA Cup final and I thought he did rather well. I noted at the time the Argyle manager was the only one to correctly predict the score!".

Father-of-four Rooney is likely to have an apartment in or close to Plymouth while his wife Coleen and family remain at their home in north-west of England.

Hallett said: "If you had asked me five years ago, I would have said 'Of course, the family has to move down here' but I think it's too much to ask of somebody with young children to uproot them.

"It's like with our players. They base themselves in Plymouth, they rent apartments and then on the occasional day off they go back and see their families, their parents, their friends.

"I think it will work with Wayne as it works with the players. He will go home after games. When we play in north-west England he will probably get off the coach somewhere close to his house, which is what a lot of players do.

"I don't go on the team coach very often but when I do it's quite noticeable that you stop half a dozen times and a couple of people get off."

Rooney, who made his Premier League debut for Everton aged 16, has been appointed by Argyle at a time when a multi-million pound investment is being made to turn the brickfields site in Devonport into a permanent home for the club's academy.

Hallett said: "One of Wayne's attributes is that he is a passionate believer in getting kids up from the academy. I think he gave a start to a 15-year-old centre-back at DC United (Matai Akinmboni), which seems remarkable."

"Wayne, I think by virtue of his background - he was one of the youngest players ever to make a debut in the Premier League - is a great believer if you are good enough you are old enough.

"That was one of our criteria, that people be prepared to take the risk with youngsters - or the apparent risk with youngsters. I think Wayne was at least intrigued by the plans for the Brickfields as a sign that his commitment to young players is matched by the commitment of the club."

Hallett believes Argyle will be able to cope with the inevitable extra attention the club will get now that Rooney is their head coach, and that they can also turn his presence into an advantage.

The Pilgrims' chairman said: "It is nice to go under the radar and I think it is kind of our underdog culture. We know we are a long way from anywhere, we know because we are financially conservative we have low budgets.

"It's kind of a constant struggle as an underdog and I think we like that. Wayne was hired because we thought he was the best candidate to help us win football matches.

"The attention that comes with that, I think we are going to have to find ways of turning it to our advantage. Certainly it comes with costs as well as benefits, absolutely no question.

"But we have got a good, strong media department who I think have dealt exceptionally well in the last couple of weeks with the extra attention, and they dealt exceptionally well with the initial negative reaction. So I'm pretty confident we are going to be able to cope.

"Wayne's status as a celebrity is one thing, but his status as one of the dominant footballers of his generation is another, and I think that is something we will definitely be able to turn to our advantage in terms of attracting players down here, which is not always easy."

Hallett added: "I tend not to watch international games, I find them mostly pretty dull, so I don't think I had quite appreciated how much he was respected by his fellow footballers as very much a team player.

"I knew about his passion and his determination, but I don't think I quite recognised how much he was recognised by his fellow pros as a role model on the pitch and as a team player. I'm not surprised because those were qualities that really shone through during the recruitment process, and interviews in particular."

The extra attention on Argyle following Rooney's appointment and the debate it caused led to Hallett, who is always an open and honest talker, being interviewed by multiple media outlets last week.

Hallett said: "I think I have been asked almost everything. The one thing I can't emphasise enough is just how nice Wayne is. And I know that's a rather vague statement. This is a guy who is going to relate to the fans, he has already said 'Stop and say hello if you see me walking around Plymouth'.

"He's a very nice person. I think people are going to be quite surprised, as I was, just what an approachable, down-to-earth, humble young man Wayne is."

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