Simon Hallett on the decision to appoint Wayne Rooney
In an interview with Argyle TV, Chairman Simon Hallett has outlined some of the reasons why he and the Pilgrims’ board have opted to appoint Wayne Rooney as the club’s new Head Coach.
Below are some highlights of the interview. You can watch the full video, for free, on Argyle TV, by clicking here.
Simon on the Head Coach recruitment process:
“When we embark on a manager search process, we have a list of attributes that we believe are desirable in any Head Coach.
“Those include having some Championship experience - Wayne has had limited experience, but at least it's some.
“I think what we learned from the end of the recruitment process to the beginning of the next, if I can put it delicately, is the importance of relationships with the players and with the staff.
“One simple thing that we did differently was to run personality tests on the shortlist. That was one of the attractions of Wayne. He is a guy who will develop really strong relationships with players, with staff at the club, and with the fans.”
Simon on analysing Rooney’s managerial history:
“We know that his win-loss ratio is not particularly attractive, but actual results are not a terribly good way of looking at how much of an impact a manager has had on a team.
“You can look at data to analyse style of play, and Wayne's style of play is consistent with what we want to see out of an Argyle team.
“Looking at the underlying data, we can see that, at DC United, he improved attack and defence. When it came to chance creation, they were almost top of the league.
“At Derby, he improved the defence and at Birmingham, the situation's kind of unclear. He went in for 15 games at a time when they were sixth in the Championship, but only a couple of points off 13th or 14th.
“The results clearly were very poor, and it's actually hard to see very much in the underlying data. What we do know is that Wayne was required to play a style of football that he felt was inconsistent with the players that he had there. We're not particularly looking very hard at the data at Birmingham, but rather at Derby and at DC United, where he improved both teams quite considerably.
“He left Birmingham after a run of bad results and those bad results continued. I don't think that Wayne was responsible for the bad results. I think it's up to us to demonstrate that to the fans.
“He is a guy at the beginning of his career. He's worked at three clubs that didn't provide him the kind of support that I think Argyle will be able to provide, and he's the kind of coach and the kind of person who will fit in wonderfully into the Argyle culture and the Argyle values.”
Simon on Rooney using youth:
“It's about a willingness to use young players, particularly important at Argyle over the next few years, as we bring on the Brickfields development for our Academy.
“Many managers are reluctant to take risks with young players, and Wayne as an Academy product himself has shown pretty aggressively that he's prepared to use players at a very young age in the first team.”
Simon on Neil Dewsnip’s role in the recruitment process:
“I don't think it's true to say that Neil was particularly pushing for Wayne. Nobody was being pushed until we interviewed the candidates on the shortlist and at that point we argued our views, but the views were very consistent.
“Neil has had a long relationship with Wayne, and it was obviously close when Wayne was a young boy in the Everton Academy and Neil was a coach.
“They've kept in touch since, but I don't think it's a close relationship. Neil told me that he hadn't been to Wayne's house, he didn't have Wayne's phone number.
“I don't think they'd actually met in person for ten years. They know each other, they like each other, and I think that's a good basis for a relationship going forward.
“Neil Dewsnip has been a fantastic addition to this club and has been a major influence on the really quite remarkable success we've had over the last half a decade, so we should be grateful to him, I think, not critical.”
Simon on Rooney fitting the ‘One Argyle’ ethos:
“Wayne is media friendly; another one of our criteria. He's very, very good at relationships with the fans, relationships with the players, and relationships with the staff of the club.
“It's very important that the coach be deeply embedded in the club, shares the ‘One Argyle’ philosophy that we believe has been very much part of the reason for our success on the pitch, as well as off the pitch over the last few years.
“That unity, a feeling of togetherness, a feeling of cohesion is very much part of what has brought Argyle so much success over the last five years. I think that was something that we thought was important before, but didn't realise how important.
“Anything that divides the fans is a source of distress for me. I want our fans to be as united as the rest of the club is. It's distressing, but I think fans are reacting to his results at Birmingham. Let's remember that it's not as if Birmingham suddenly became a table-topping team after he left.
“I'm certain that if we do okay on the football pitch, the fans are going to embrace him very warmly.
“Wayne is a lovely guy. He's intelligent, he's articulate, he's approachable, he's down to earth, and the fans at Argyle appreciate that accessibility. Despite his worldwide fame, he remains a guy who's going to be accessible to the fans. He's going to work hard to make sure the fans understand that.
“With the support that he's going to have around him here, and his willingness to accept that support, I think he should thrive.”
