Wayne Rooney keeping Derby County up would be ‘biggest achievement in football’ amid lawsuits and debts

Wayne Rooney is in the final phase of securing the qualifications needed to manage at the elite level in English football, but it turns out that learning on the job as Derby County manager offers a much more comprehensive education than anything he’s learned while studying for his UEFA Pro Licence.

“I’m going through my Pro Licence [qualification needed to manage in the Premier League] at the moment and it certainly doesn’t prepare you for this,” Rooney told ESPN. “But listen, it is what it is and I have to deal with it.”

“This” is shorthand for the catalogue of problems Rooney, 36, has had to deal with on a daily basis at Derby, his EFL Championship team. The club had persuaded him to cut short his spell at D.C. United in Major League Soccer two years ago in order to take his first steps up the coaching ladder, initially as player-coach under Phillip Cocu before stepping up to manage the team in November 2020.

Since taking charge, Rooney has guided Derby to just 14 wins in 59 games, and the club narrowly avoided relegation to the third-tier League One on the final day of last season. In December 2021, they’re anchored to the foot of the Championship, 20 points adrift of safety, after being deducted 21 points by the EFL: 12 points for entering administration, or proceedings to mitigate financial insolvency, and a further nine points in November for historical breaches of financial rules under former owner Mel Morris.

Derby, the English league champions in 1972 and 1975, are £83 million in debt, which includes an unpaid tax bill of £26m, plus unpaid transfer instalments to various clubs amounting to £8.3m. When it was announced that St John Ambulance, the charity that provides medical support at games, was owed £8,300 by the club in September, Derby supporters raised £12,000 within 72 hours to pay the bill.

The club are…