Former Birmingham City striker and pundit Chris Sutton admits he hopes to see Wayne Rooney on the touch-line in the form of a manager again in future after the ex-Blues boss lost his job at Plymouth Argyle on New Year's Eve.

Rooney joined Blues in October 2023 and presided over a dismal run of just two wins in 15 games, a run of form which contributed significantly to the club slipping into League One last spring, despite the efforts of Tony Mowbray and then Gary Rowett in the second half of the season.

While Blues are setting about making an immediate return to the Championship, Rooney in the summer was afforded another crack at the second tier when handed the reins at Plymouth, who had sacked Ian Foster at the back end of last season. He made a competitive start to life at Home Park, winning three of his opening nine games in charge which had the Pilgrims placed in 14th.

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Rooney claimed only a single victory more in the 14 matches following and left the club at the very end of 2024 with them propping up the Championship table. While the records Rooney now holds during those ill-fated spells at Blues and Argyle are likely to play a part in determining whether he gets back into management again, Sutton hopes to see him once more.

Sutton told Sky Sports: "It's an interesting one isn't it, because I suppose the question is does he want to go back into football management? I really admired him for taking the Plymouth job and maybe it might've been a touch early for them to part ways, because the expectation at the start of the season would've been to stay in the Championship.

"It's not like they're really cut adrift, but they've made the decision. I'm one of those where I hope that he does go back into management. He clearly loves the game. He's had a couple of difficult jobs - Birmingham was always going to be difficult, the pressure was put on him at the start.

"The chief executive said about no fear football, that certainly didn't help, as well as the job John Eustace did. Then going down to Plymouth, not an easy job. Eventually he's paid the price for that, but I do hope we see him back one day."

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