Pete Shuttleworth on Wayne Rooney the manager and how he works

Wayne Rooney will not always want to be front and centre as Plymouth Argyle head coach and will be quite happy to hand over training sessions or team meetings to his backroom staff.

That is a glimpse into what the Pilgrims' players can expect from their new boss going into the 2024/25 Championship campaign. Pete Shuttleworth, who was named as Argyle's assistant head coach on Wednesday, described Rooney's management style in an interview last December.

Rooney was in charge of Birmingham City at the time but Shuttleworth spoke at a Press conference before Blues' pre-Christmas trip to play Argyle at Home Park because the England legend was ill.

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He gave his personal insight into Rooney, having worked for him at Derby County and DC United in the USA before linking up with him again at Birmingham. In the interview it was put to Shuttleworth that Rooney as a manager was so calm on the touchline and nothing like how he was as a player out on the pitch.

Shuttleworth replied: "When he was finishing as a player at Derby, how he reacted to losing or his competitive edge was always there. We saw that for years and years in his playing career, how he acted on the pitch.

"I think the big thing that surprises people is how he is now compared to how he was as a player. What I try to explain to people is that it's no lesser passion, no lesser will to win. That is a conscious decision.

"He has had a long process thinking about how he was going to be as a manager. I think he has always known he wanted to be a manager. Now if he's that person on the touchline of kicking, shouting, screaming like he was as a player, how does that portray to his players? I think that's the reason he doesn't do that.

"Maybe the modern managers now, your Peps, your Artetas, your Klopps are more animated on the touchline, but the managers who the Gaffer played for, your Fergusons, your van Gaals, your Mourinhos at times were quite passive.

"They let the players get on with it because they believed they had done the work, and they got up and reacted at the right times. I think that's what he takes and thinks about his own management career, which might be different to Pep and Arteta but everyone is unique.

"He has talked about that with me and how he's going to be. Also, he has played for managers who they were the ones who did everything and their voice was heard all the time.

"He never wanted to be that person. He wants his voice when it's heard to be the most significant one. So he's quite happy to hand over coaching sessions or team meetings to other people. He knows when his voice comes in that it counts for more because it's a manager's voice and it's more significant.

"He has thought a lot about it and I think what you see is not something that has just happened. I think it's a thought out process to make him be successful."

Shuttleworth had an initial spell at Birmingham, first as a scout and later as an analyst and then a set play specialist coach, before joining Derby in 2020, which is when he met Rooney.

"He was a player at the time and then took over quite quickly after when Phillip Cocu left," said Shuttleworth, also in the same pre-Christmas interview. "I just got to know him there. We got on really well. We spoke about football a lot. We had similar beliefs on the game. When he got the job in America, I got the call.

"I always thought he might take me with him, and he did always say that. In this game when you get that offer you have to bite it, so that was a real positive, and then there was the opportunity to come back here (to Birmingham) again."