ONE of England’s best-known football men gets a posh title while another loses his job.
So a happy new year then for Sir Gareth Southgate, but less so for Wayne Rooney.
Former centre-back Southgate, 54, became the fourth former England manager to be knighted, although such an appointment does not necessarily qualify for a gong – just ask Sam Allardyce!
For anyone with short-term memory loss, Rooney is one of our all-time greats as a player, with his 53 goals for England putting him on top of the pile until Harry Kane went past him in 2023.
But as a manager, Wayne was sacked by Plymouth a few days ago after taking them to the foot of the Championship.
It was his fourth management failure and he might well conclude he needs a fresh line of work.
His career and Sir Gareth’s crossed a couple of times at least, once or twice in 2003 on the playing field when Rooney was a teenage wizard, scissor-kicks a speciality and our best forward since Alan Shearer.
In 2016, he was still around at the start of Southgate’s eight-year tenure as England boss.
Rooney, 39, might not be a great manager but how his shining talent brightened the lives of Everton fans for a short time and Manchester United’s for a generation.
Wide in the shoulders, strong and quick he could go either side of a defenders, motor at fair speed and even occasionally score with his left foot.
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He learned early on that he had to handle himself, remaining unflinching – and sometimes more.
His outlook is perhaps mirrored by his wife, Coleen, who was sued in the Wagatha Christie court case by Rebekah Vardy, whose husband Jamie was also an England striker.
No matter the costs of going to court – for a case lost by Vardy – or of a family of four children, the Rooneys have made a mint from football celebrity, said to be about £200million. Good for them.
Rooney’s sacking might well have been his last throw at management but there were no angry noises.
To his credit, he left Home Park without a murmur against the club.
I admire that and I admire his persistence in pursuing a career as a football manager.
That takes a special type of character and he clearly loves football.
By Tom Barclay
Gareth Southgate claimed that only winning Sunday’s final would earn England the respect of the footballing world.
Spain proved a last-gasp comeback too far in Berlin, but defeat did not change the fact that Southgate’s eight-year transformation put respect back into the world of England football.
Critics will pick apart his cautious tactics, his selection choices and his record in the most high-pressurised games – with some legitimacy.
Yet what is quickly forgotten is the laughing stock our national side had become before he took over in 2016.
A shambolic Euros exit to Iceland that summer had been followed up by Sam Allardyce quitting just one game into his tenure thanks to his pint of wine with undercover reporters.
Then came Southgate, with his decency, his humility, his understated eloquence and his vision for a better, different future.
He had analysed why England had so often failed in the past, from lack of preparation at penalty shoot-outs to players being bored out of their minds during major tournaments.
Southgate took those findings and implemented a culture where players wanted to play for their country again – and it led to back-to-back finals for the first time in our history.
Instead of going to war with the media, he opened his doors to them and discovered, shock, horror, that it was met, generally, with support.
It did not stop him from being criticised when required – we are no cheerleaders, here – but the vitriol of yesteryear – or today on social media – was largely gone.
No manager is perfect and neither was Southgate. We cannot pretend his teams played like those of Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp.
But in the fullness of time, his feats will likely be revered because the results speak for themselves.
Hopefully his successor can go one step further and bring football home.
To do that, they must show respect to what Southgate has created and build on it, rather than rip it down.
To read more from Tom Barclay click HERE.
Southgate brought to his England management a touch of style.
His honesty and integrity are not always expected virtues in football and a lot of international players must have found it refreshing, along with being part of a well-run, decently coached and amenable set-up.
He succeeded in many ways – two European finals and a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final is a good record – but was not as solid an achievement as a cup or two.
Neither were some critics happy with the way his team played, claiming it was stolid, with little flair from attacking players who were capable of so much more.
Rooney was good enough to have made a difference but time was against them both and so we can only dream of the possibilities.
The sole Knight of the Realm to have won a major trophy for England was Sir Alf Ramsey 59 years ago.
The others – Walter Winterbottom and Bobby Robson – tried and failed.
Managers, especially international ones, always need more time to connect with their players and it is perhaps surprising that Thomas Tuchel was appointed for only an 18-month term, starting this week.
The end of his contract coincides with the World Cup next year, should we qualify.
WAYNE Rooney took the football world by storm when he made his debut for 2002 with Everton.
He quickly became the club’s youngest-ever goalscorer aged 16 years and 342 days and was named the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year.
The striker joined Manchester United in 2004 and spent 13 years at Old Trafford. He went on to make 559 appearances for the Red Devils and scored 253 goals. To this day he is still the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Following his spell with United, Rooney returned to Everton for a season. He also spent one-season stints with D.C. United and Derby County at the end of his career.
As well as his impressive club career, Rooney is also England’s second-highest goalscorer with 53 goals in 120 appearances, behind only Harry Kane.
After hanging up his boots, the England icon turned to a career in management.
He took charge of Derby County in 2020 and managed to just about save the club from relegation from the Championship at the end of his first season.
However, with Derby handed a 21-point deduction the following campaign, he was unable to keep them up again and subsequently left.
Then came a 15-month spell in charge of MLS side D.C. United. He failed to impress during his time in Washington and parted ways with the club at the end of the 2023 regular season.
Rooney was controversially handed the Birmingham job in October 2023, replacing John Eustace with the club doing well and sixth in the Championship table.
However, in 15 games he suffered nine defeats and managed just two wins. He was sacked in January 2024 with Birmingham down in 20th. The club were relegated to League One at the end of the campaign.
He returned to management in May with Plymouth Argyle but managed just five wins in 25 games. The United legend now finds himself out of work once again.
If we don’t, heaven save anyone within firing distance.
England have an abundance of fine attacking players, several of whom will have to wait to meet their international boss whose first game is nearly three months away — a qualifier against Albania.
Whatever happens, I am sure 2025 will bring new opportunities to both Sir Gareth and Wayne.
Good luck to them both.
