Wayne Rooney grounded on Premier League ambitions with Plymouth Argyle - 'We need to be realistic'

Wayne Rooney has remained grounded in his ambitions as manager of Championship club Plymouth Argyle, but has said he aims to get the club "closer to that Premier League". Rooney was announced as the new manager of the Devon club in May, taking over from Ian Foster with the club avoiding relegation in their first season in the Championship.

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Wayne Rooney is remaining "realistic" in his outlook as he prepares for the fourth stint of his managerial career with Championship club Plymouth Argyle.

The former Derby County, DC United and Birmingham City boss took over from previous manager Ian Foster in May, and is hunting for success after his dismissal from the Midlands club in January last season.

Plymouth, who narrowly avoided relegation last season following the departure of popular boss Steven Schumacher, will be looking to establish themselves in the second tier after promotion from League One in 2023.

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And Rooney said he and his team must be "realistic" in their aims for the upcoming season, which starts against Sheffield Wednesday on August 11.

"We need to be clever in how we work," Rooney said in his first news conference as Argyle boss. "I’m not going to come out and say we’re going to be looking to get to the Premier League in a year’s time, we need to be realistic.

"What we're trying to do is build on what the club has done over the last five years, which has been rising and getting better.

"I think we need to keep moving forward and keep trying to improve and certainly improve on last season.

"Hopefully at the end of a timeframe which we have in, we can get closer to that Premier League."

Following his departure from Birmingham in January, Rooney had time outside of management.

In that intervening period, Rooney featured on TNT Sports' coverage for Manchester United's Premier League clash against Everton, alongside other punditry roles. But the former striker said his ambition was always to return to management.

"I don't want to become the next Gary Neville," he said. "I have a desire, a passion with football and a love for football and I've always had that.

"The last few months have been very strange for me. Since January it's been a real strange time being at home.

"I've done bits of TV work, but my real desire is to get back into management."

Rooney acknowledged his struggles in adapting to his managerial roles so far, highlighting the difficulty of joining a club in the middle of the season.

The 38-year-old, therefore, said he is relishing the chance to have a pre-season at Argyle, and get to understand his squad before the season's dawn.

"What I didn't want to do was go in somewhere again mid-season," he said. "I did that at DC United and again at Birmingham and straight away it becomes a lot more difficult to get the messages across and the point across and get the players to perform

"So it was really important I went in somewhere and got the pre-season to start, and I was delighted that was the case here at Argyle.

"It's my love, it's what I know, it's what I want to do and without it for the few months which I had, I found that very difficult."

The former United forward further outlined his intentions as manager and the style of play he intends to showcase.

"I want to be an attacking coach, that's something I've always wanted to do, and to play entertaining football with control as well," he said.

"I think my teams have always been very well organised but we play good football and team football. Of course you want to score goals, that's what everyone wants to see, and my style of play and how we play is all aimed to do that.

"So it's a lot of work now to get that into the players over the next five or six weeks for the first game of the season."

Rooney's Argyle begin their pre-season preparations with a friendly against non-league side Buckland Athletic on July 16.

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