There have been some mitigating elements to Rooney’s demise at Plymouth – some avoidable, some not so.
As head coach, fairly than supervisor, he couldn’t be held solely accountable for transfers, although his repute within the sport performed an element in some gamers opting to affix.
Nevertheless, it was clear the signing of skilled Iceland defender Victor Palsson – who performed underneath Rooney at DC United – was one he had pushed for.
The previous Liverpool academy participant managed simply eight appearances underneath Rooney, fighting kind and damage, and with the January switch window now opening it didn’t encourage confidence in his eye for a participant.
“To be honest to Wayne he is been dealt a difficult hand – we have now the smallest funds within the division, we’re a small fish in an extremely massive pond, we’re constantly punching above our weight and he needed to are available and overachieve,” Bell stated.
“I do really feel for Wayne as a result of it’s a troublesome job – it’s tough to try to maintain Plymouth Argyle within the Championship. We did it by the pores and skin of our tooth final yr and sadly, as a lot as I might like a better season, I feel we’ll most likely must do it the identical method once more this yr.”
One factor Rooney might definitely not be blamed for was Argyle’s crippling damage listing.
He has been with out the backbone of his group, together with captain Joe Edwards – now caretaker supervisor – on-loan Toulouse livewire Ibrahim Cissoko and Morgan Whittaker, who scored 20 objectives final season and was the topic of a multimillion-pound bid from Italian giants Lazio final January.
It meant 16-year-old academy product Tegan Finn needed to begin their 4-0 defeat at Coventry on Boxing Day.
“Sadly, regardless of having an damage listing the size of anyone’s arm, it is not labored out for Wayne and the time needed to come.
“Lots of people in defence of Wayne have requested: ‘Who might have carried out higher?'”
“The straightforward truth is we do not know, we’ll solely discover out now.”
