Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has not ruled out jumping straight back into senior management - four weeks after leaving Plymouth Argyle. The 39-year-old was appointed as Argyle's new manager in May on a three-year contract after the club survived relegation from the Championship.

Rooney had the entire summer to build his Plymouth squad equipped for the 2024/25 season but he got off to the worst possible start, losing 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday. Argyle's form was mixed up until November, and after beating Portsmouth 1-0, they sat outside the bottom three on four wins and three draws from their first 14 matches.

However, Rooney failed to get another win from that point until he was axed on December 31. The former United and Everton forward left Argyle rooted to the bottom of the second tier on just 18 points from 23 games. Overall, Rooney boasted a 20 per cent win rate from his seven months at the helm.

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Despite departing Plymouth one month ago, Rooney is keen to dip back into management, although he stressed that it must be the "right club" and isn't in a "massive rush to go back in", hinting at a period away from the game.

He told the Stick to Football podcast: "I would like to go back in [to management], but it would have to be the right club. You always have that ego and that confidence that you can go in and get the best out of a difficult situation.

"It never happened that way, but I am going to enjoy time [away from management] with my family. I've been skiing with Coleen [Rooney] – I loved it. I'm not in a massive rush to go back in – there's different things that I’m looking at to try and get involved with – unless something was absolutely the right thing to do.

"Every club I've been at, I've put myself in a really challenging situation. Sometimes you have got different ideas which you're trying to put across to the players, and maybe there's a bit of arrogance where you're thinking, 'This is the right way'. Having better players helps."

Since retiring from professional football four years ago, Rooney has been in four senior managerial roles. He started as the first-team manager at Derby County and helped keep them in the Championship during the 2020/21 season.

While he couldn't achieve the same feat in the following campaign having been whacked with a 21-point deduction, Rooney left the Rams in summer 2022 with his reputation firmly on a high. A mixed return to DC United in the MLS followed for Rooney, although he failed to gain them qualification for the play-off two years on the bounce.

He left the United States in October 2023 with a 26 per cent win percentage from his 53 matches in charge to become the new boss at Birmingham City. His time in the West Midlands was a disaster from start to finish.

Rooney was appointed when Blues were sitting sixth in the Championship following the shock sacking of John Eustace. However, Rooney managed to accrue just two wins from 15 matches before he was sacked by Birmingham after a damaging 3-0 defeat at promotion-chasing Leeds United on New Year's Day 2024.

He spent a short time out of management and worked in the TV world for a couple of months ahead of making his return with Plymouth. Now, a month later from yet another sacking, Rooney is back to square one.

So far, he has managed 178 senior matches since retiring, winning just 45 of them. But where does Rooney go from here?

While he could go straight into another first-team position somewhere, there is a chance that he might decide to either work as an assistant to build back his profile or work in an academy system. One of the those two feel like the best options at this moment in time.

The last thing that Rooney would want to do is ruin his reputation once again by nose-diving straight into another difficult job and one that could lead him down a similar path to Birmingham and Plymouth. With his career record so far, that does feel like the way it's going for the former England international.

However, if Rooney decides to become an assistant and work under a more experienced manager for a few years, that is going to no doubt give him more ideas and a better knowledge of the managerial scene to work with. Look at Xabi Alonso.

He worked as the B team manager at Real Sociedad for three years before getting his big break at Bayer Leverkusen. There was little pressure for Alonso to finetune his management ideas and his philosophy before taking that on and producing it in one of the best leagues in world football.

Every job Rooney has had so far has had a great deal of pressure and expectation come with it. Whether it try and survive with Derby or Plymouth, or reaching the play-offs with DC, he hasn't had much chance to really improve his coaching without needing to deliver instant positive results on a week-to-week basis.

Should he be able to get a job that is more focused on coaching and has less pressure: such as working for academy - such as his old club United - or in an assistant role where there is less experience, that would benefit Rooney more and should be his next career step, rather than another lead management role.