04 January 2024 , 22:25
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Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick has admitted the careers of players are “irrelevant” when they move into management after seeing former team-mate Wayne Rooney lose his job.
Rooney, who appeared alongside Carrick for both Manchester United and England and established himself as record goalscorer for both before Harry Kane bettered his international record, was sacked by Championship Birmingham this week after just 15 games in charge.
The 38-year-old won 13 major trophies, including five Premier League titles and the Champions League, during his time at Old Trafford, but Carrick, who boasts a similarly impressive medal haul, knows that counts for little once the dugout beckons with contemporaries Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard also having endured difficult starts to their coaching careers.
He said: “Yes, of course it’s not easy, it’s challenging. Player or no player, it almost becomes irrelevant in some way, you are judged for how good or how successful you are or what you’re achieving in the role that you’re in.
“Me currently in this role and the fact that I played a little bit and had some experience, yes that will help and hopefully it will help me to understand certain situations. But ultimately the fact that I played a little bit…
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“It’s me sitting here now, the boys are playing on Saturday, I’m in a totally different role.
"It in some ways becomes irrelevant what’s gone on in the past, it’s about what’s next.”
However, Carrick is convinced Rooney has too much talent not to emerge from his disappointment at St Andrew’s and succeed as a manager.
He said: “I’m bitterly disappointed for Wayne, knowing him as a friend, and I know he’ll bounce back, I know he’ll be a success. He’s too good, he’s too knowledgable and he’s had too much experience to not use that in the right way.”