And now there’s another one. Fired as coach of Birmingham City after only 15 games in charge. Rooney’s outstanding playing career lasted nearly 20 years. His time as manager could end before he turns 39.

The Birmingham job is Rooney’s third as a coach and follows spells at Derby County and DC United in the US MLS. Since taking the Derby job in November 2020, there have been a total of 22 days without him going to work. So, his commitment to his business is unquestionable. However, the Birmingham job is always likely to tell us whether he is really good at it or not. I always felt that job would push Rooney in one direction or another, maybe even in a good direction.

There have been financial warnings in Derby and in the US. At St Andrews, in the Championship, the playing field is very level. Birmingham were fifth in the Championship when he arrived and are now 20th. Rooney’s team have won two of his tracks.

After being sacked on Tuesday morning, Rooney released a statement filled with pain and defeat. It’s very dignified but includes the idea that he hasn’t had enough time.

But then what did he really expect? Jobs in Birmingham are never on time. It’s not a slow burn or a build-up. The club sacked someone who had previously applied those outdated management fundamentals – Rooney’s predecessor, John Eustace – to get what they saw as flashiness through the door.

After the club’s chief executive Garry Cook publicly demanded that Rooney deliver ‘fearless football’ on his way to promotion to the Premier League, the former England and United captain against that in perhaps England’s toughest league of them all.

Looking back, Rooney may wonder why he took the job. Is it really the thing for him? After working under penalty-point conditions at Derby and DC United, not one of America’s traditionally most successful teams, Rooney returned to England in the fall looking like a hungry manager. get a break and some time at the club where he works. will be allowed to impose its own beliefs, plans and structures in the long run.

Instead, he allowed himself to look towards Birmingham, where Cook and the club’s American owners appear keen to make a fast move to the Premier League. Championships, as we all know, don’t work out that way and now that Rooney has been eliminated, it’s hard not to wonder what happens next.

He is not alone. Steven Gerrard is trying to restart his coaching career in Saudi Arabia. Frank Lampard lost his job. Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard. That’s the creative part of Britain’s golden generation at the turn of the millennium right there. Among the rest, Gary Neville, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand have sought refuge in the commentary box.

The greatest English attacking player of his era wanted to get to work and did not allow his ego to get in the way of what would now most likely have to be a foray into the lower reaches of the pyramid or indeed a move to an outpost in one of the Gulf countries What would help Rooney at least is the humility that comes naturally to him.

One personal memory that remains is of him casually standing on a pitch in Washington during United’s summer tour in 2014. New United manager Louis van Gaal told him , in minute-by-minute detail, about how he should take a penalty. Rooney was United’s captain at the time and England’s number 9. Lesser players will point that out. However, under the media’s watchful eyes, Rooney stood still and absorbed the lesson. He will need all that dignity and more right now.

At Birmingham, his coaches were former teammates John O’Shea and Ashley Cole along with long-time ally Pete Shuttleworth. When his playing career ended two or three years ago, Rooney hoped Darren Fletcher would be his right-hand man. Fletcher is a naturally intelligent and calm guy. He’s the planner. Had he not been caught up in the hierarchy at Old Trafford – where he is now technical director – the partnership between Rooney and Fletcher might have served the Englishman well. With Fletcher’s future at United uncertain ahead of Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS investment, it could be that Rooney will return.

I have to say it’s hard not to worry about Rooney a little. He’s hardly stopped moving or really working since he was 16, and for someone who never seems to stand still for long, there’s usually a reason.

Rooney has spoken freely recently about his periodic struggles with alcohol while his wife Coleen – who stays at the family home in Cheshire while Rooney commutes from there to a flat in Solihull – spoke to this newspaper in November about her husband’s complicated feelings.

“When things got too much, he would drink to forget everything and escape the world,” she said.

‘What happened was of course the opposite.

‘Wayne is not much of a talker. So sometimes he can store things in there.”

When you play soccer, you may feel that life is very simple. Everything has its place and is in its own box. For the most part, you do as you’re told. Management is different and although Rooney has been meticulously prepared, its challenges must be very real for him now.

Having listened to art from managers as diverse in status and background as Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Graham Potter, the Rooney columns that have appeared in the Sunday Times in recent years have provided insight. Insight into the mind of a young coach with fresh ideas to go with enthusiasm and understanding of the game. Sometimes, they are fascinating. Meanwhile, those who have worked for him and with him speak of an intelligent, empathetic and intuitive manager of people.

However, Rooney now finds himself unemployed and that is simply because his success rate as a manager is very low. Across his three clubs, it was just 26%.

Why Birmingham hired him in October rather than last summer, only Cook and perhaps Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford know. Why the club hired him ahead of tough games against Middlesbrough, Hull, Southampton, Ipswich and Sunderland rather than waiting for the international break afterwards, only they know. Why Rooney didn’t stay away from Cook from the start, only he knows. He certainly has no shortage of advisors.

But what is certain is that mitigating factors like these will not help him now. Rooney is in dire straits along with everyone else and it feels like an incredibly long road back. He, like so many of his former teammates, longs for the days when all he had to worry about was the ball at his feet.