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Plymouth Argyle CEO Andrew Parkinson insists Wayne Rooney's doomed appointment was not 'for profile reasons'. Instead, the Manchester United legend proved himself to be the 'best candidate' from what Parkinson claimed was a 30-man list. Rooney was appointed as the Pilgrims' manager in May last year, four months after he was sacked as Birmingham City boss, an ill-fated 15-match tenure in which he won just twice. However, given Rooney's standing in the game, his biggest critics felt Plymouth made the appointment with the idea of boosting their profile. It was especially pertinent given Rooney's horror stint in the Second City set the wheels in motion for the Blues' relegation to League One, the first time they had dropped to the third tier in 29 years. But in an interview with Business of Sport, Pilgrims CEO Parkinson revealed it was Rooney's desire to prove his doubters wrong that made him a compelling choice. “He was the best candidate we saw when it got down to the interviews, " Parkinson said. "The biggest thing for him is that he really wanted it. “There’s lots of other things that play into that. We went down from a long list of 30 and the process isn’t a straightforward one. “People might be at existing clubs and might not want to come, they may have contracts where it will be expensive to get them out of it. Sometimes it is more difficult to get people to come down to Plymouth, let’s face it. “When we got down to our final candidates, he absolutely wanted to prove himself, wanted to show he could do the job. “He’d had a couple of difficult experiences at other clubs, but at the time we felt he was the best candidate. “We didn’t do it for profile reasons at all. " Despite Parkinson's insistence Rooney's hire was purely a sporting one, he conceded the appointment undoubtedly brought extra attention to the club. In fact, Plymouth had made plans to produce a fly-on-the-wall documentary following Rooney around the club. "It was massive in terms of that (profile), some of it is a bit ridiculous, " Parkinson said. "He didn't want any of that, he just wanted to concentrate on football and actually so did we. Otherwise it becomes a bit of a circus. "We did look at doing a show, but that was all around football. Not like a Wayne or Coleen show. " Unfortunately for Rooney, his stint at Home Park never got going. A 4-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday in his first game in charge set the tone for what was to come as Rooney won just five out of his 25 games. He was eventually relieved of his duties following a 2-0 defeat against Oxford United on December 29, which was Plymouth's sixth in their last seven games. The Pilgrims replaced Rooney with Miron Muslic on January 10. Under Muslic, Plymouth caused one of the biggest FA Cup upsets in recent years when they beat Liverpool 1-0 at Home Park. However, Muslic has been unable to transform the Pilgrims' fortunes in the Championship as they sit in last place on 33 points, six away from safety. © 2025 talk SPORT Limited

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